Friday, December 31, 2010

The hunt.

The Fair Folk watch with gleaming eyes
through shadow, through shadow
The Fair Folk quick and silent ride
through shadow, through shadow
The Fair Folk will their quarry take
through shadow, through shadow
The sleeping infant does not wake
through shadow, through shadow
The Fair Folk sound the hunting horn
through shadow, through shadow
and are fast away before the morn
ends shadow, ends shadow

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The Late Escape

who has let it loose
my blacktrimmed goose
with the golden legs?
my black winged goose
that lays the golden eggs?
the latch is tight, the dog was quiet.
all night i heard no sound.
and all across the snowy yard
no tracks upon the ground.
oh footpad footloose
who stole my lovely goose?
I wish I were not so obtuse
but who did take my black winged goose?
the grey old sky gives me no clue
how did my precious bird get loose?
My blackwinged bird with the golden eye
my blackwinged bird has learned to fly

Bah humbug dreams

sheep sheep with the fluffy fur
do you ever wonder what you were
doing jumping so
in my dreams last night?
over the fence and back again
such nonsense!
if I were you I'd be incensed
such presumption on
my fluffy independence
who said that I should dance
over the wooden fence
I will not take this in silence
I must end this nonsense!
BAH!

The Lop and the Loophole

one day the farmer came
to lop off
off with their heads
and off the long legged Lop loped
he and his bride they had eloped
through the loose loophole
in the hatch behind the fence
and they were free.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Serengeti, New York.

Throw wide your iron teeth my love
let the metal arms of your rounded gates
spin backwards and back again
a thousand numbers turning from greatest to least
and from least to greatest they shall be
the smallest first
let the slowest come first
Let the world run wild

The lion, my love, is loose.
How the hunter hates to lose.
I told you that today
we should not have come
to the zoo.

Revenge of Poe.

I have slicked the lime across the stair
left the honey to glisten like a snail's track
along the center
a sunset streak on a white river
and I wonder if the sunlight poured
is as sweet and thick to my hungry skin
as this careful trap to you
Here you come with your night sky eye
and the curve in your neck that indicates
surprise and something more
the way you always do, the something more
it is why I cannot leave the nothing here
why I cannot leave without you
though you are nothing to me and I to you
So come closer closer
on your thin shadowed legs
with your curious eye and shining mouth
almost the sun is set, almost it is time
so one step more and you shall
and I shall

there.

o raven now, raven still
what shall you say
for I have caught you before the door
and you shall haunt me
nevermore

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gordian.

I found you by the turn of the stair
tied by your silken sash
to the mahogany rail
sitting with your fingers careless
knotting the ends of your hair
with your shoes double tied
and the rope of pearls twisted into
a Gordian cluster around your neck.

I told you that we were, as always,
late
and that this time you'd promised
you'd solemnly swore
that we'd get there on time
not like every time before
and what was this ridiculous mess
we had no time for silly games
but get yourself up and lets go.

and you looked at me and laughed
with your brittle bright smile
that shone even as it cut
and how my heart bled
as you laughed and laughed and said

But baby I didn't mean to make you wait.
I know, I know we can't be late
and I know you'll probably hate
me for this but you see

There was a thing or two
a mess and a scare and a bit of the dark
and I couldn't find the light and I knew
we'd probably end up fighting and
somehow everything ended up all wrong
and now I guess, well you see, it's just
I got tied up.

You laughed the whole time
I untied you
and carried you up the stair
through brushing out your hair
and taking off your shoes
until lying down in our big bed
you cried and told me
there was nothing nothing I could do
that you were all tied up inside your head.

Finale.Finally.

and she ties pearls into her curls
knots each one in its elegant loop
a silken hangman's noose
and she leaves her neck bare
but for a breath of scented air
to take your breath away
and she stands behind the light
with her skirt tied tight
by the threads of shadow

and she burns, she glows
and she knows, she knows
that this will be the end
of you her friend.

Emasculate.

It was an odd little lion
with pastel tufts of tail
and a beribboned degradation of a mane
It looked, to me, ashamed
sitting amidst these glitter coated things
in its own shining cage
and the plastic cannot stop
its glassy eyes from staring
back at me.
You sit beside me in these clean rooms
slouched across these straight back chairs
with the florescent lights bouncing
their hard beams across your face.
Your hands sprawl across the space
and your eyes wander the busy room
and there is nothing for you to see.
What is a cynic to do
with a world as hard as he?
What use a lion
When all the gazelle are caged?

Bend down bend down darling
let me tie another ribbon on
Come along my sweet my dear
I know that you are nothing to fear.

Make a Wish.

Once I caught the half bell curve
of an drifting eyelash
on the swell of my finger
It slid into the sprawl
of my rigid fingerprints
a puzzle piece slotted neatly in.
I wonder each time they fall
if there is something I missed
If like the petals of the rose they mark
the strands of time that I forgot
and mirror the coming doom.
One by one, at each half-finished tale
each friend that slipped away, each
afternoon spent without thought amidst
the swollen space of the crowded world,
and they work loose and fall
and I am one step closer to the end
the inevitable moment when these
the last slender spears between me
and all the grit of truth
are gone, lost forever on the wind
and my eyes are forced open and raw
blinded by the grinding light.

So let me be careful to blink
and light with the mascara's ink
too soon this soul must sink
beyond the edge of mortal brink.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sandman

I've built a bridge
to where the Sandman lives
I know the way
to where the Sandman is
Come along Night
take my hand and come
We will walk along the stars
back to your father's home
The Day has run away
She's played her inheritance
into the shadows beneath the trees
and the branches that dance
You and I have seen her game
We know the tricks she builds
Let us away to the Sandman's
beyond the foggy hills
I know where the Sandman lives
He keeps a room for me
I love to be where the Sandman is
in the house of my dreams.

supply and demand?

she learnt it on the plastic panels
that stuck to the back of her knees
and itched her elbows
and always smelt of bleach or glue
one day they gave a red one
even though she asked for blue
and it didn't even have the duck
with it's bright yellow feathers cracking
in a thousand ways in the corner
how was that fair?
It wasn't as though there wasn't another
sitting right there in the teetering pile
and she could just see the edge
of a yellow bill as plain as could be
but this was that and what she got
and there was nothing to be done in the face of that
so she drug it in the corner
and carefully spread her blanket across as much as she could
stretching it to conceal the fire engine
with it's yellow ladder
that was nothing at all like feathers
and curling in the center to think very hard
about justice and desire and whether she would have
apple juice or chocolate milk today.

Everything I learned
confused me in kindergarten.


Friday, December 3, 2010

The Lagoon

The moon is flooding through the upper window
filling half the room
and I wake in a silver aquarium
with the shadows sitting choppy
on the sea of light
I awake as a creature unseen
the mythical amphibian breathing
both dark and light as easily
as my long hair drifts through this new world
as my long thoughts drift, prodding
the corners and stretches of this world
and how it bends before me with a marine grace
All of this is freedom and the breath is sweet and deep
between the light and dark the mirror sprays
white caps into the shadowed ceiling
and I am the last siren singing her secret song
awash in this midnight world

a cloud sails across the moon
and I am asleep again
a mortal child with immortal dreams
to wake in morning with nothing
but a strain of song to recall

Visitation

I have seen angels before
with faces like yours
so white and still
an implacable beauty
an impervious threat
and I am as afraid
of you as them
with their wings predator tipped
and, o horror, nothing behind.
There is nothing to touch to feel
but still their long fingers grip
the cold iron swords
that burn with celestial ice
the bitterest of all wrath.
I am afraid to touch your hand
lest I find in its grip a hilt.
I am afraid to ask your name
for my fear is that I know it-
O grief how did you find me again?