I breathe
oh, but hardly it seems
this new lung so unusual
The brass is the same brass
the growl is the same growl
but I breathe
I can’t breathe
I breathe
oh, but hardly
And it sings!
The song not so strong
but will get stronger
lungs pushing against lungs
pushing against valves pushing
against tiny metal springs
as I breathe, oh,
but hardly.
Knowingly or unawares;
I cannot tell.
A single strand slung
around my calf or across
my chest.
Her long feathery threads
attach like lithe stowaways
on my socks;
cling to the gruff stubble of
my chin as if it was
the single hair to
escape my razor.
She declares through radiant
wisps that which is hers,
Wisps in predictable and unlikely
places announcing;
This man is mine!
This man is mine!
I claim him and he adores me!
Do strangers notice?
Do passersby see the signs?
It matters not.
The signs are there.
Her precious woven gold
marks me.
if only chris farley
would come down from heaven
or up from hell
and to my place of work
to give me some hell,
berating me without ceasing
for my slacker attitude,
and threatening with bleak prospects
should I not improve,
telling me all about
a legendary van
and the picturesque river
that could be my land.
i want none of you and all
of you at once
i mean that both ways
i want to live freely
but exactly
and i want it warm
i want it right in
the middle, where
it belongs
but i’m having the
hardest time getting
all of that,
even down,
i guess.
or it could be any day
or it could be a week away;
and in the waiting,
it’s hard to find peace,
waiting for the inevitable
and the moment when life begins,
again,
allowing self reinvention,
becoming who we will be,
becoming who we should be,
becoming who we are,
and have been,
already.
i am very thankful for you
and all that you went through,
for all that you did
and all that you said;
but today
i really appreciate this free day,
allowing me to sit idly by,
eating pizza for breakfast
and watching tv all day,
attempting to forget my cares
and enjoy the moment, while it lasts.
You have been selected
as the best we have to offer
with your little golden statue
and your perfect princess smile.
When visitors from elsewhere come
and set their ships flying above
we’ll bring you out to meet them
and you’ll save us from their tractor beams
You have been selected as
the Best
we have to offer.
Please keep practicing that smile.
“The thought processes run
so violently this time of season
and of course there’s never
reason to the rhyming, all ignored
with every sore wide open, every
bled-out wound bleeding again
and everybody looking for a friend
what’s so important? let me
tell you. It’s those madnesses,
the little ones, that everyone
plays off as someone else’s
problem. Let them deal with
what they’ll deal with, and the
rest I’ll leave for someone else
to bother with, I’m sick of this,
I’m leaving.”
Things thought so big
Are really so very small
So give it all up
To get it all back
There is a greater truth
Than anything to be found here
Spoken in less than a whisper
Shed the old and burst anew
Where at last bonds are broken
And we finally feel alive
Tonight we will find peace
Tonight, heaven and earth are one
Wonder is written allover
a young woman’s face.
She walks beneath the vaulted
arches
and stately shelves
of humanity’s
accrued and finite wisdom.
History and Science-
Romance and Mystery-
The Bellicose and The Transcendent-
stacked neatly,
and made known.
The measured clicking of her heels
sounds throughout.
She releases a sigh
from a space within-
pillared and buttressed
and no less
marvelous.
She exits in low light
beneath a
glowing, jeweled-green sign,
and leaves the dust
clinging to
stone and wood
and pages undisturbed.
i’ve kept friends like apartments
changing every year or two
and when i return it’s not the same
the walls have been repainted
and redecorated with pictures of smiling strangers
the large oak table we carved all our names into
has been irrevocably replaced
so i leave
my memories and faith
unstable.
(a new sieve norm – once it’s been done twice)
you spent at least two years
too many
in a former soviet republic
received at least two
too many
massages from strong muscular
bearded men in awkward
spa/tea houses because
that was just the custom
ate at least two
too many
parts of the cow which were
never intended by nature
or God
to ever be consumed
gave your wife at least two
too many
drinks on more than one occasion
just to watch her motor mouth
impress even you.
left at least one
too many
pairs of em… soiled(?)
boxers in my guest room during
a brief visit
where the child you’re about father
may well have been conceived
(probably not… i’m not soo good with
the numbers)
you waited at least one year
too many
to join the ranks of fatherhood.
welcome to the brotherhood.
“but i am confident you will
be brilliant” (and that boy will
love a pipe, beer, and literature
like a man should).
(p.s. i love that it’s a picture of you with someone other than your wife)
The books are read
Papers dissected, articles analyzed.
Memorizing every in and out
Of this date and that guy
And where he or she was
When that battle went down
Or this miracle happened—
A veritable encyclopedia.
You could grow a long, gray beard
And write your doctoral dissertation
Pontificating on the level
Of your unsurpassed knowledge
On the subject we all try
So desperately to understand.
But that all means nothing
If you don’t know it
Where it matter’s most.
You gotta have faith, man.
You just gotta have faith.
for you and me
but right now
a kid like you and me (once were)
cries out for parent’s whom’ll
never hold him again
and fathers dig through
piles of dirt
till fingernails fail
and more
because children aren’t
something you give
up on.
no matter
how many bodies
are dumped via bulldozer
into trucks to be removed
after the already departed
souls.
It was the arthritis,
he said,
as he handed me his
envelope.
But he used to have
a name for himself.
A hundred dollar ad
in a local paper.
Must have sold him
about sixteen of ’em
just from that one ad,
he said as he pulled out
his pictures.
That was the biggest,
but I only did that one
once. Hard working in
a shop with no heat,
arthritis and all.
But he used to have
a name for himself.
Doghouse Jim.
A hundred dollar ad
in a local paper.
e n t r o p y
fear
HATRED
[ERROR]
$money$
$money$
$money$
$money$
pots
mearcs
there’s a video camera every where to be seen
why NOT
PUT ON
a happy
face? 🙂
put yourself at the center of your map
program your gps to tell you where your at
g
ive
yourself away for cash
or a laz-e-boy
e n t r o p y
write your book
change your name
never resolve
never end
eyes closed
mouth open.
my prayers
are feeble fists trying
to squeeze water from stones.
I saw my black whale today
once again parked in my spot;
the driver never seems to surface
but i know he/she/it is there,
circling deep down below,
toying with and taunting me,
waiting until my distracted eyes turn,
only then coming up for air,
and escape.
Pretty soon
Something is going to happen
(It may have already)
And when it does
The damage will be irreparable.
A call not for the dim of mind or faint of heart.
Yes, this is how the cookie crumbles,
And for unknown reasons
The perception has existed
That when it finally does happen
There will be a way (some way)
To place all the pieces back together,
Returning to the way it has always been.
But that theory has never been more wrong
And in realizing this, I’ll stake my life to say
It will be the greatest thing you ever do.
the long day deserves
nay
demands
the levels of sugar you’re about
to pour through these veins
chased by butter and popcorn-topped
piles of salt
i’d stop you
but my lifeless limbs
no longer work
(save the channel changing
finger pointer of course)
an IV may be nil by mouth
but these years
where movies were my livelihood
made the entitlement
so much more
alcoholic
the sieve and the sand 
You must be logged in to post a comment.