24.10.11

Planet Earth


Take a seat
Not on the sidewalk
You’re a lady and
I won’t even
Touch that
And they won’t touch
Me or the concrete
Benches where we watch
Its dark here
Peace and water moving
Rest under this darkness as
Often as I
Do, don’t
Close your fists
Open your fingers
I want to touch them to
The insides of my wrists
If your hands were a color
Other than you, I’d
Ask God to make you white
Blue, like the ocean
To show me
There’s infinity growing
I need to crash into
Tides pull me under
Sheets, I only think
Keep breathing,
Kami, keep
Breathing in your
Corner is unfolding me
Like the love note
I’m too shy to write

4.10.11

Inconvenient Stores

The sun rose clear
The sky was a million
Golden waffles
Waiting for us
To close our mouths and
Eat up the dawn

Your anchors
Had unhinged a few months ago
I kept turning my eyes
Batting my mind
Lashing to what I knew
And never looking to see what was true
That you were falling

Sinking
Floating
Out of my orbit
It wasn’t something you wanted
But sometimes our joints get rusty

Is there a word for the color
Of the atmosphere
When the day is ending and the
Sun is closing us
Down, like each face is
A convenient corner store
Full of goodies for our neighbors?

You ran away tonight dear.
That’s why I always keep a
Rainjacket folded in my back pocket.
For the nights when the atmosphere doesn’t
Close us and we have
To shut things down with
Zippers and
blinds

And if you need more room
Just say so
I’ll pile my couches in the back alley
And give you a seat

 If you need to stay unhinged
Drifting for awhile
I promise to keep steering toward you
Following your wake
Waiting to eat breakfast at your table

To kiss you with my ears closed
And my mind so open.
The neighbors will peak through our
Shop windows
But when you need me to
I’ll remember we have curtains
And you're not a secret
But I'm pretty sure I want to keep you.

catch


she held her
Life in her hands, as
if it were ashes
from letters
long burnt
down to
nothing

her porcelain fingers
click together
shaking wide
spread to catch
everything
crumbling

through the confessional window
I look into
her gloom
molded wallpaper room

Where did he go?
the only indulgence
I give

Can you help me?
she cries.
I think something broke. 

28.9.11

Love Note to the Moon


Dear Mister,
The river is high.
I heard you had something to do
With pushing it
Toward my toes
Hydrating tickles

Octopuses swim on my ceiling
Faint glowing yellow from
Your skin
Freckled
With the valleys
God forgot about
When he sneezed

My nose itches
You smell like Halloween
For you I
Want to be a fairy
A fairy princess octopus
Light bulb
I’ll break if
You turn off

On the nights
You hide
I won’t mind your
Loyalty to the
Other girls with
Big smiles

I’ll tickle my own
Scratch my
Nose if you’re gone
But don’t let the river down
I need it to tuck me in.

22.9.11

11 Ways of a Beard

1
America would be in
A better spot
If our presidents followed
Abe Lincoln’s example of
Facial hair

2
It peeked from
The resonate box
Saying goodnight
And asking
Me to stay

3
A face sized quilt
Curling
Warming your wisdom
And definition

4
He brought us presents
I learned to
Annually look for
Someone surprising
Around midnight

5
I like your beard
Exponentially
More than Ke$ha does.

6
By waiting a few months
You’ll magically have the ability to
Cut down trees
By waiting a few years
You’ll have the ability to
Do magic

7
Between trees
I saw him
Knowing I should
But resisting
To run

8
I’ve listened to
Enough indie folk-rock
To know the
Sacred truth:
I will help you sing

9
I feel a small scratch
Where your face
Touched mine
Last night

10
Distinguished air
Without
Breaking anything
Shavings whisper

11
She wore pearls
He wore flannels
They liked it
That way

14.9.11

They Only Called Me "Bum" Once

From now on, you are only to give me blades of grass;
I don’t want any more of your rust
And lies about left-overs you think I’m worth

I’ve not always been here
I know what your shoes feel like
How full they are
How perfect their manufactured comfort
Ripped to shreds when
You threw the blades at me
In sharp succession the other night
And I pointed out
You were irrevocably making me die
My medicine costs less than your cigarettes
Yet you still inhale to
The demise of both you and I

Keep adding to your shrapnel sculptures

My mother told me
I’m supposed to keep tearing off parts of myself
Tearing off parts of myself jagged
Tearing off parts of myself rigged
Then I will be left a star
A supernova
And I will shine brighter
Than your knife tongues and laser eyes

I’m no preacher
But I refuse to close my mind
I once promised
If I figured out the truth
I would tell everyone
I don’t know if this will end
But I know my words
They’re to teach me
To remind me
I’m here
I’m here sleeping on the concrete
I’m here begging to keep breathing
I’m here coagulating your dust.
So if you could,
Please spare some green. 

Little Project

His paint was the sky
Coating the night black
I reach to understand the light coming from the open wounds on
His lips and the tip of each finger

The soft breeze moved the slim
Tree tops and brushed our faces
Horns from the busy intersection echoed off the walls
The wooden pipe left a sweet taste on my tongue,
While the smell of rich tobacco wafted up
The smoke curled in grey ribbons toward him

Then my ears were met with the lush warmth of his voice
Steven Michael was searching for sanity from the
Roof of the Northville Psychiatric Hospital,
Though his mind was saner than most
It searched and signaled through perfect sonnets
Not resting for much on nights when the monsters needed faces.

So choice was the sole expression I found to mumble
Knowing that because the red lights started flashing,
There was no need to worry about rain falling soon.
Come closer, girl in blue, come closer, he whispered.
The majestic spray-paint of justice glowed behind his silhouette

As the dirt struck us with its shimmering reflection,
The boy sincerely played the melody of a riot
With the monochromatic colors coming out of his mouth
Still, she will move closer and closer
Until his magnetism freezes her there

Nothing mattered to the vengeful kids
As they kicked glass off stories in silence
If he walks away, I’ll know the truth about
Running away from a house on fire
Viva la revolution screamed the stars
The monster’s red lips flashed off the dark painted brick,
Signaling our intentions to the waking black of night.


*This is the first of many poems that will be posted after I write them for my poetry class. It's a class that only meets once a week for this semester, but I'm pretty excited. 

29.6.11

Combustion


I’m writing this poem, because I might want you.
I’m not positive of this but the want may be possible.
You see, I went to a bonfire tonight
And the flames and empty seat next to me when everyone was
Pairing up in the dim orange light
Made me think of the similar setting you and I were in a few nights ago
When you asked me why the flames were so intriguing.
I didn’t know what to say,
Being more concerned with the silence between us and
The comforting reassurance of your breath by my ear
But I’ve thought about it now dear.
The flicker of this gathering place pulls in our perception
Because it’s the physical proclamation of a reaction.
It’s combustion because some things collided and combined
Into illumination
And these flames are something we can dream of and we can feel
But we can never express in the ignition of this skin
When the passion sometimes feels the need to explode into sparks
Sending red glowing pieces out into the dark
Whether we’re side by side or face looking into face
There is this space
Where things are moving between
Between me and you and him and this burning tree
Some might call it lust and some throw out the phrase love
But I know it has to do with a promise, like when Noah sent out that dove.
That there is peace on this Earth.
When we let him give it to us.
And this peace, it can change us.
It can fill all the spaces with the things we know up here
And it can make them drop.
They can take the 18 inch dive from our minds to our lives.
The lives that live when our hearts see a simple fire
As a model for what can happen
If we take of fthe masks and set aside any traps
And come into this reaction together
Ready for the combustion of vulnerable intersection
Burning together
Raising our eyes with the smoke and sparkling ashes
Shoulders and hands barely touching
Knowing the night is way bigger than this.

18.5.11

18th of May

Today is one of mist
To be felt if only just barely
To be seen if only just slight
It’s there to fill you
Surround you
And ask only for you to step into it
Whether in tip-toeing trepidation
Or full-footed flamboyance
Reach into it.

As the minutes slide by
This day moves as yours.

I’ve been around for nearly 6784, if my calculations are right
and I’m hoping for at
Least that many more
Paring it down to that fraction instead of
Full years puts such a weight and
Perspective become where this,
Right here,
Matters.

So in this mist let the faeries out
Let the kindergarteners run from their classrooms
Lets the princesses come down from their towers
Let the soldiers drop guns from their knowing hands
And let your dreams find words.

In dimly lit living rooms,
Sharing midnight secrets and
Fears that are all really the same,
Cut open your chest
Reach in, with all your blood and guts getting in the way
Push past all ache
Find your heart and
With its beating beating
Pull it out and set it here for me to see
Because no matter how much you
Want anonymity and hidden corners
I’ve never been so determined to find someone.

Come out in this day
With chimes singing to us in the wind
And choirs of birds like children singing to Jesus in perfect dress clothes
Take flight with them
In the ground that moves ever so slowly
Lay and be rocked from this reality
For the green is so becoming. 

Dear, Adieu


I said goodnight to you and
It was a goodnight that meant goodbye.
Not a goodbye til tomorrow or
A goodbye til forever, but
A goodbye to the most mournful degree.
An undeterminable, indefinite goodbye.

And sir, I must let you know
How fond I am of you,
Of how this absence for this unknown time
Will not make you unknown to me.

From the moment we first spoke
I was smitten
And we hand a good run of it,
Exploring uncharted waters
Wading quite deep.
But now you’ve set sail for another journey.

I’m alright with your departure, but
Broken in this farewell.

Dear, adieu.

Adventure well. 

7.5.11

drips


Each piece fell precisely
Little by little
All bits descending
In the dance of these drops
Because when anything on
This planet drops,
Gravity pulls it all straight
Down
Even if it comes from the sky.

We didn’t know what it
Held until
These tidbits of
The clear vast emptiness
We’d love to explore but
Aren’t sure how to reach
Finally fell
These days it helps us in that way.

When it’s gray and everything
Is caught in the moist
The sky comes down to meet us
And wrap up
Soak and drench us
In its freedom.

Enabling us to more than we realize and
Giving itself for our existence
As we smoke these joys and
Sip this sorrow
It comes down to sit next to us
To embrace us
Tousle us like the
Thunder breaking through the clouds
All the while liberating.

26.4.11

Scuffling feet
Pulse of these streets
Shuffling bustling
More steps to make this something
Life coming up
From alleyways they jump
Voices ring in chants
Stopping the suits from their rants
Louder and clearer still
Making change more than any bill
Faces gleam
Under windows' reflected beam
Confident in our dreams
Sure, we'll stir these seas
Not only with laws
But with our bodies. our jaws.

20.4.11

these will not destroy you


Oh the words
Fun and playful syllables
Intent with slight
Entendre
Double and triple and even hearing
Listening to the purpose of your
Mouth that confuses
Meaning of your
Mind leaving pause
Racing through with paces
I like the rhythm of your spaces
Poet giving repetition
So we know where to come in
Jam and take a bow
Drum away
Finger tips for sticks
Knee tops for
Pounding out this beat
Pomegranate red mouth
Yeah yeah yeahs
Chanting with the graces
I like the rhythm of your spaces
Nod to work out the kinks
Of knots tied too many times
Take advantage of
What you know of freedom
Never taking it for granted
The words that camp out under the bridge
I’m thinking about leaving soon
There are so many more places
To fit with the rhythm of your spaces

5.4.11

so simple in the moonlight

Happy birthday gas station boy
No longer but now brinking man
Not so far from sitting under
Tungsten bulbs
Burning bright at middle of night
After adventures too
Trepid and tormenting for repetition
In words here
Talking about nothing
Infinite in this moment
When empty words say absolutely
Everything our hearts mean.
Hoodlums off the freeway.

Let your spirit fill the space between
Each finger tip
Conducting between energies
Flowing within and through and around
Melodies  tugging
Heart strings we didn't know we had
Hands clasped to stay
Grounded and perfect
Elevated to a heightened
Realm of being
Together as one in the many of one
Made by infinite tangling of fingers.
A whole fraction of breath.

Nights of unending
No particular emotion attached
Every one possible present and
Exploded inside and in front
Rocking and shook by
Infinity.

2.2.11

Bees

Knobby knees.
I think that’s the only explanation for the
“k” + “n” equation
Other than “gnome”
But that doesn’t matter, because in my head
It was spelled with a “k”

Getting down.
Vulnerability embodied no matter which way you
Swing it
Blow-job bruises
Submission to one
Greater than thou or at least above

That’s where the divide happens

You’re low.
The thou
The you
The eye
Hands raised in plea and praise
As the knobs hit in hollow resonation

St. Peter's


Taking refuge in the caverns
Escaping movement and noise to sit
Meditating and paying homage to the worth

Air tasting like comfort-flames
Flickering pieces lighting our spirits
Control panel for the human soul
Insinuating awe after awe
With the stacks

Rows lining aisle ways
Alter worship of New York
Where words and art
Adorn hearts
Alleys and subway stations

Perhaps all the chill hurry
Needs to be simmered out
To the simplest of
Reverent pockets of light

The noble pursuit of hands.

To build reconstructive bridges
From broken channels that once
Spanned from her heart to mine.

My hands touched the keys again
For the first time tonight.

Power Smoothies

Reminiscing the day when
We lived in places
More exciting than the ones
Keeping us up now

Dressed like scum
Talking liking sailors
Over cups of caffeine
Pretending we could save
The word on power smoothies

People from out of the woodwork. 

29.1.11

Mack

Like the slow process of watching skin heal itself
Day by day after being cut
Straight through,
He speaks with the endurance of
Difficult recovery pain.
Each word a deliberate attempt
To voice the feeling,
Delivered after deep thoughts found in
Searching the valley of that cut.