Needy.

i pull the sense from you

packet by packet

unwilling teeth

bared to me in a grimace

i warp into a grin

and say one more one more

o my love

one more only

tell me once and once again

the truth of what this means

these changing scenes

and you with your smile/snarl

scream/sing again

dropping packet by packet

these tied up bundles of truth

a grudged thing

a weary action

and i am almost

sorry

but o my love my love

once more, one more time

tell me why and how

you love me

with your grimacegrin

you singsnarl

I don't know

No

I don't.

If you aren't busy...

make me a machine
with a slick neon sheen
with buttons that glow
and a screen that knows
(everything)
make me a machine
to fix this
to trick this
world that keeps breaking
every tie I'm making
and I'm all undone
and I'm all alone
I have this dream
that everything is what it seems
and there was a machine
with a thin static grin
and a thick neon sheen
the strangest thing I've seen
can you make me
this green glow machine
to fix this world
do you know what I mean?

Reproach of a Teacher

O cruel you

to give me wings

and leave me with these bones

so heavy and thick with blood

these wings you gave me

hang useless from the puzzle piece spine

that I use to keep myself upright

and the tips drag in the dust

with the feathers worn loose

What a foolish thing to give a child.

What use has she for an imagination

in a world of gravel and gravity?

A thousand.

a thousand thoughts

and one good line

with your eyebrow raising the question

like a hook

and I am caught

a floundering foolish thing

a thousand thoughts

and one good time

with your hand in my hair

like a knot

and I am undone

a laughing loving thing

a thousand thoughts

and one good bye

with your back flat in the shadow

like a locked door

and I am alone

a shattered solitary thing

Hallo Hallucination.

between this cold concrete and this caffeine

its no wonder i can't sleep

my toes are curled against my feet

ten tiny mice in their infant stages

crowded together for warmth

I watch them from this fuzzy height

pretending they belong to me

and alternatively

that they do not

that they are some strange thing

washed up against this slab of a shore

by some tricksome winsome wind

and all I have to do with it is this casual encounter

in which i stare at the foreign creature

curled up in the cold and suppose

what if I and this bizarre creature were connected

As I lean haphazardly against this concrete wall

creating and severing these foreign feet

I wonder vaguely about the strange angelthingyou

and against this cold concrete

with all of this caffeine

I find that though I can't sleep I can still dream

Run

Climbed the ridge today

and stretched my scarecrow skeleton to the sun

leaving my long arms straight and still

and the heat sunk like a sound into my soul

some secret signal of forgiveness

and I soaked it in

while along the ridge

the flashes came one by one

a sudden blaze and then nothing

a thousand souls seeking freedom

Architectural Failures.

Let the storm build a wall around me

I will take for windows the gaps between raindrops

and what a beautiful carpet this shining puddle makes

For my roof the rolling clouds will do

and for light quick the flashes come

Thunder sounds the alarm -a visitor!

and I am at the door with the wind a guard dog at my feet.

Let the storm build a home for me

I'd like to see you find me here.

The thunder rolls again

The lightning strikes the shadows flat

and throws the light against my visitor

You! With all your shining heat

a blazing sun against my storm

and I am lost again, homeless in this hope

(of you with your open arms for walls

your smile for a sun and strength for a guard

for a roof your shoulder and for a window

your eyes and how they see the world

and for a home you and all your heart)