27

Slower please
Now I've seen
Thrice three thrice

Tease the flow
Keen-eyed cow
Rightly tight

Older cheese
Vow I'll be
Snipe me ripe

Edges

We have learned to love

The edges of things-

Beginnings and ends,

Mirages,

Spooky apparitions at a distance,

That closer inspection

Dispels-

And forget how everything is contiguous soup

Which drowns all meaning.

Human ingenuity is this:

Draw a line to make one two;

Create a cage, invent a freedom;
Carve me, out of us.

Arboretum

An  arboreal  calm 

Has  descended  upon  my  daze 

So that,  now,  when  I  sway,  I  do  it  in  place, 

And  when  I  heave,  I  creak  in  a  deep  staccato, 

And  when  I  shed,  I  can  read  limerence 

into                                   the 

s c a t t e r 

And I

Can see

The future

Yellowing

All around me,

As I feed myself

On myself - growing more rings and

More wind-blown fruit, scrunching up the black earth

By the foot-ful and reaching up with splayed fingers for a shedding sky,

Just to taste your breath travelled from a mere branch-and-a-half away to me.

Dam building

Some have built dams to hold back and grow
Usefully the indefatigable flow, but,
Frankly, I don't have one-
And so I pray for softer rain
Until my bones and stones are set.

To Leave

Candy-green leaves coming into their own,
Verdant shades opening in the light,
Chancing these times sought and slandered,
Remind me always of friends as we are, reaching up
And out, still joined and drinking the same sweet sap.
The whole world flows in their veins as they
Lilt and grow together.

Tetractys

Still
Learning
Everything
Trimesterly.
Overintellectualization?

Diner Daze

Fluorescent light
Warm, ripe stench
Dry ashy knuckles
Split cuticle on an index finger
Bright red dots on thin toilet paper
Weird smears on yellowed tile
Dried phlegm wall paintings
Haunting streaks on a warped mirror
A waterlogged head
Fingerprinted slick on a brassy knob
A heavy bathroom door
Body odor wafting by
Sizzling grease
Sharp bacon smells
Stiff knees and a bloated belly
Harsh sunlight streaming in
Everybody in this goddamned diner

A rickety chair
Moist gum touching a knee
An elbow resting on scattered salt
Dried brown ketchup on the underside of the cap
Bitter runny yolk and a gelatinous mass of albumen
Metallic hot sauce
Cracked lip stings
Sweaty, itchy scalp
Odoriferous water

A pimpled, tired face
Questioning eyes
Frank regret