Everything In Its Place

"What is that?"
That is the book of death.
Thumb through it some time.
I dog-earred the good pages.
"Did you write a book of life to go with it?
One cannot be without the other."
I did.
"Where is it?"
I do not know.

Love At First Sight

As they pair and match,
kettles mate to black,
I hash mark those left behind and
enumerate their purpose.
Outside of the cage can be traveled
in the astral plane.
One way glass.
It is fun to pretend and energizing to believe
there is a match for me.

Operation Dusky Moon

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Phone Tag

I wanted not to tell of where I'd been and what I'd heard,
to tell of reptile scales so big they blotted out the sun,
of clouds and river breakers lapping at my toes,
of regret and washed up frames, rust blackened,
shelves of jars gone farther down stream while
the metal skeleton sat where my fishing rod was supposed to go
and crushed beer cans and months of fire pit stones stood.
I wanted to tell you that I missed you and our best days,
laughing shoulder to shoulder and eye contact too long, broken
by the magical words "do you have a lighter"
knowing yours was at home too.
The wind kicking up and the clouds threatening
miles in the distance and fingers splayed to crease sunlight
while we dragged the metal to the golf cart submerged
in the lagoon beside the metal drum the river gifted,
turned a'right to accept the garbage human traffic
left behind at our fishing spot beneath the bridge.
I called to ask you if you saw it too.  The world
through a window, small, in the furnace door
where men and women could look safely.
I called to ask if you saw it too
through the inch square thick glass and
to hear what you thought while you were blazing.
The seconds slip by and you sleep while I die and
I'll live while you breathe into your day dream.
Rise from the dead with the sun in your mouth
and I'll come to you, lips wet, to,
teeth open wide,
take it.

The Lamp Post's Shadow

You should come outside.
I think I should stay here for a while.
I can always come in.
Please don't.
You've been mentioning me by name.
Don't be ridiculous, you don't have one.
You've been mentioning me by name.
That's not possible.
You should come outside.
I should get some sleep.
You've slept all day.  Come outside.
No.



Hello?

You should go outside.

Do You Want To Talk About It

Pace.  Echo.  Pace.  Alright, let's go:

Shiner.  Shiner.  Some things don't heal up.  Some things don't wheel up.  We walk on air and then get up.  To Hawaii and Pittsburgh.  To New York and then sand dust.  To the dunes, then the Pacific, to the lakes and then soft shoals.  To the swamps and the trees,  to the trails and cement.  To never never lands and the houses that meant.  Everything's lost.  Everything's good and then gone.  Everything's looking like 21 and two aces and ten grenades with a spare clip and then gone.   Everything's ice and then boss.  Everything's numbers and then bomb.  Everything's looking like a thing and then not and while it takes a minute to be about it along it comes up real short at the cost and accountant is looking like we about the bounce and a toss and instead what we got is the  witch and the flame and across the game is a cross up in white light blue name and the trough is full with somebodies blood and there's a body on the ground and no one can spot that outlines name.  Damnit.  Shiner.

Tracers 3

after Such Great Heights




I cried myself to sleep
until my sockets freed
themselves from the meat cage they stowawayed.

You, out there on the road
telling yourself it's all a lie
will hear the shrillest highs and lowest lows
when this song haunts you at the doorstep of your home.

That, frankly, will not fly.
Use a wrist to dry your eye.
The one that still has skin that has not been able to regrow.

Somewhere in the grass
where you lay your spine to rest
where you check the pockets of your vest
to breath out and find your phone
while the fire pit you built cracks

and the stars above are the same
the moon exactly where you left.

The world, it did not die,
your howl did not spy
a new peak or tree line.
You know there is still no where for you to dine.

So watch
the fires from afar.
Dance while all of the tracers fly.
Wait for the ash to settle
and nudge the bodies that you find
before taking a bite
to survive.