the witching hour

Sometimes I tire so of this little white box

waiting so apathetically for my fingers

to spin it a tale and knot it together

with a clever phrase

throwing in some imagery for colour

and irony for weight

i throw and catch and turn about

and they ask are you

are you up

and I tell them

I'm up I'm up

except when I'm down

but hey babe you know babe

i'll always be around

talking into this little box

spilling my thoughts

like loose water in the rain

and i'll go back to the refrain

there is nothing to restrain me

no one to retrain me

and so when they ask

are you

are you up

and I tell them

I'm up I'm up

except when I'm down

but hey babe you know babe

i'll always be around

as mad as a hatter and with half the tea

so really tonight you'll have to excuse me

because i cursed old father time

and he turned around and cursed back at me

I and he and the blind mice three

telling each other our history

and they ask me

are you

are you up

and I tell them

I'm up I'm up

except when I'm down

but hey babe you know babe

i'll always be around

I'm up

I'm up

(except when I'm down)

and darling dearest

love my own

you know I'll always be

(I'll be around)

The Curse of Common Courtesy.

Let's skip all of this nonsense

these greetings and pleasantries

it's not like you ever left this conversation

you with your telegraphic eyes

with your photographic face

and you could send me signals

from fathoms below the sea

it's always been you and me

in this mixed up mess of a language

and its one long interaction

made up of gestures and chemical reactions

this study in intercultural creations

and you and I are a new mess altogether

I've forgotten all the tongues I used to talk

all the other tongues I used to taste

with the sting and tingle of wit and want

the line between can and can't

With you it's no line

a long vowel of a word with a thousand meanings

and I am the master dictionary

you are the queen of the thesaurus

throwing inflection around like the curve of your hip

against my -against my hand

and I'm catching every tone

deep in the weight of every bone

so lets skip the pleasantries

the greetings and the greedy giving

all i want to know is here

between your chin and eye

do we have a word

for goodbye?

(for you. because I am so sorry.)

Arrival.

Today.

Today

(and it will soon be yesterday

and then then and at last long ago)

but today

was something new and untouched.

It existed on its own

blooming into being

somewhere along the gap of night

which exists between the reality of yesterday

and all the thousand same before

and this new separate thing

all strange and glowing with foreign light.

I woke into today

with one strip of light across my lips.

It pulled me, a gentle tugboat

drawing me from this ocean of sleep

and into this new created port

to rest and revive

before the long dive back among the dark waves.

Today I walked the long pier

with the light stripping away the salt

from my deep dreams

and arrived.

Sanctuary

the evening comes

let me sheathe this weary blade

within the warm earth

take the weight of these wounds

and turn them into something new

grow something green under the dark sky

let it bloom to starlight and starling song

and wax beneath the moon

I will take a knee for the shadows

rest my head against this scarred hilt

and find a deep moment in the rolling dark

I and this sword and the blooming new

nested next to me

resting for the stretch of time

Dawn breaks

and the battle calls

So sword and I are gone

with a wilting bloom behind.

Fluidity.

It terrifies me

the way my blood in water

spins and disappears

vanishing between the smooth atoms

of this foreign wasteland

to assimilate

to appear as nothing

a non-thing in this clear world

and like that I am gone

another transparent being

in this fishbowl of honesty

with no secrets

no self

to conceal

Passing through

I've gone through the old maps

looking for trace of lemon

slipping the black light over the edges

counting codes upon my inkstained fingers

crossing these cloudy clues off my list

and there must be a conspiracy

some covert covenant amongst secret saints

who know each other by their hidden halos

and I cannot get the light to bend

Once I dreamed my way

I woke on the doorstep with the words

ringing through my slender veins

Enter Friend and Rest

for you have found Utopia

Now i slide between dreams and dust

searching the antique rolls for some silenced path

some stairway or corridor

searching for the shine of a halo

I'm just here for a moment.

Tomorrow I will find Utopia.

sprawl.

will wonders never cease. the world wobbles on and the wicked wander through their worn ways whistling "God Save the Queen" and we ask and we whisper. may he save her. may he may he he may save her. but who shall save us. this is the way the world goes. around and around. a round on me and let the flow go free. we are men upon a marble and who knows when the crash will come. tiptoe through the forest but scream along the streets. this is a story for dark nights outside of candlelight. when we have forgotten the children are there straining for the echoes. and how it rumbles how it roars the echoes of this land and its new birth. its ripping strength it's shattered legs and let us lift a glass again. three cheers for the night Night was born. Hooray Hooray Who ran with the news to tell? I am death destroyer of worlds.( he soul thief he shadow king.
he dark dancer he dust dragon) i am king wearer of crowns. i am queen of the royal sheets. i am arms thrown wide across the night. i am the equator where all earth meets. so scream. scream with me again. this is the story this the tale. tell your children. tell your sons and their sons. tell the sons the tale but keep the girls quiet. this is no string of words for a gentle soul this is sword and stone. this is blood and bone. this is more than you have known. this is what it means to be alone.