Cityscapes

Beige skin and almond eyes
echos and chasm.
Flaws blur under a buzzing street lamp.
the sea of bodies,
flooding the space between the crumbling brick alleyways.

Gray brain matter and shattered glass
The ones who seek and find;
cigarette drags and comfort in the darkness

[the fall]

Sunlight like knives
through your blinds.
Eyes flutter and fall

The writing on the wall,
has been repainted;
all white and new and old and new.

[the rise]

Recollection and laughter-

Cartoons and coffee-

Sheets and skin-


If you know, you know, You know?

I know.

Voyage of One

1.

Pink skin and clear blue eyes
horizon and void
mortality circles within a chest
spinning webs of muscle fibers
tiny hands outstretched and willing
welcoming the swirling incandescent sea of a star-dotted mobile
the flutter of warm milky breaths and arms to comfort cries
swim up, up, and through

2.

Skinned knees and broken barbie dolls
postage stamps and gardenias
tiny hands tugging on grandmother’s apron
a butterscotch candy, sweet and familiar on tongue
swim down the lobotomy of remembrance
gold finches with ballet slippers
they sprout lies like dandelions
swim around and explore

3.

Crumpled papers and piercing alarm clocks
red faded bandanas and splintering picnic tables
jointed fingers calloused with the creation
tide pools rippling; the surface dancing with deceit
stubborn voices collide and crash like tidal waves
angst and pent desire blinds
polluted permanence and linked limbs
swim to the depths, become a bottom-dweller surrounded in darkness


4.

Lacerated nightmares and carbon copy fingerprints
foreign foliage and letters on a blackboard
get to know that river bed
when water runs uphill and smoke filters through the air vents
I swam that river, head first
greedily fill lungs with each promise to be sustained
foam piles like dust; blindness ensues
swim up, surface, blink, and breathe

Shadows

That day, that night, that morning
The sun rose and fell, and rose again
Your eyes opened and closed, and opened again
They didn't flicker or glow.

The sun rose and fell, and rose again
And you told me lies, just with your eyes
They didn't flicker or glow
I believed you, back when faith was tied

You told me lies, just with your eyes
You never smiled.
I believed you, back when faith was tied
but then it shattered.

That day, that night, that morning
You never smiled.
But then I shattered
Your eyes closed and opened, and closed again.

Abyss

Its a broken carnival ride, spinning out of control
colors and lights blurring together
like the puddled mess that's in your head.

Silver leaves and eyes like diamonds
written lies across your flesh
all the empty echos that have been said.

Stereos turned up too loud,
tires against pavement -
too fast

Leached colorless with the moon
shadows that have been cast

Shaky hand grasping granite
fingertips leaving smears across a cold heart
no permanence
no impact

Its a broken carnival ride, spinning out of control
colors and lights blurring together
like the puddled mess
left in my head

End or Beginning?

That piercing final bell,
the white caging cinderblocks falling down around the,
Teacher's accusatory stares already in the distance

Eyes adjusting to twinkling sunlight
off black and gold robes
off silver bleachers, dotted with people
Hats with tassels perches awkwardly on heads like birds on wires

Green turf spred before their bustling footsteps
podiums of importance looming
folding chairs lined up like soldiers on the front line

Pomp and circumstance
and balloons already celebrating in the breeze

Laughter, smiles
tears that puddle and drop
Over the goal post, relief floods in and the stadium surrenders
as black and gold fly through the sky
rising with the echoing applause

Traffic Lights

Foot on the gas
who stayed forever?
shoulder to shoulder.

Let me be sick with your heat,
arriving in the fumes.
Let me end that river

Once more fog
winding all day
he picks up his disguise.

Fading out like an old movie
pulls down the shade
as you are gone.

His heart already pushing over the red routes of other's road map

With blue eyes to the thread
neither bird
nor stone

Let me flutter and drop
Let me cluster and arrange
Let me flow through the same ruined scene

It was a long trip with little days in it
and no new places

Foot on the gas
Who stayed forever?
shoulder to shoulder.

Reverb

I carried my bones to;
Who’s she?
I built a life
And in the end,
there was no place.

I made up a song
that wasn’t true
There was no other yet
I would rather think of
Not now.

I could hardly name her,
A man of many hearts?
I robbed the stones of the river,
I have tied her down

I have tied this knot in my dreams.
A man of many hearts does not need me.
There was no other chamber for it,
Only the knot.

I made up a song
that wasn’t true
There was no other yet
I would rather think of
Not now.

You see,
the song is life.
But she was ten colors,
the life I can’t live.

For years
Season after season,
but by time
I will have tied these other knots

I stamped her out with a song
You tie your own bedded down knot.

Just once, just once
the song is life.
But she was ten colors,
the life I can’t live.

There is no law for this
and the clover has grown thorns
as he passes;
Discord

stay with me

fingers tangled in my tangles

in my heart stings


like the surf envelops the shore

unties the knot


the elevator in the fire

melted wax dripping like desire


nature is full of teeth

and the stones write this silence


the furnace of your chest

the lullaby of your skin


i migrate toward the fog

the blackness is murderous


tied down time with a rope

threw out the wrinkled map


faces in a parade

a thin tangled poison


your fingerprints

metallic rains tracing


sweet honeysuckle and red wine

your eyes in mine