20 - The Last Kit

The world, to me
it is my child's shine
no clouds, or greener grass
or wind
his hair
the scent of his hair

The skyline, at night
it is deeper than hurt
no birds, or lost wishes
or words
your eyes
the center of your eyes

This sunrise is perfect- this one, just for today
And tomorrow's- I dare not speculate

New Sentinels and comforters
Of the missing
Stand up today
Be seen, heard and counted on
Into the ranks, I enlist
Without care
But caring nonetheless

Breathless Caretakers and old
Missives, wandering the lawns
And dunes
The edge of steel and plastic and glass is where I stand
And I reach out quietly

Your place is set
You told me one million things
About me with those four words

Sequels and infant stars arrive
I have stepped out from the Shadow
I breath breathes of air and nervousness and excitement and the vapor trails of Louisiana

What are you waiting for?
The question hums
And drugs sing and crawl my skin
And I remember what will happen someday

I can lie back and smile
Thoughts of your hand in mine
Fingers crushing air between them as they weave
As I breathe harder for a second and a half
It is not the word or the threats the make up that work,
But the dead winter grass under-foot

Your eyes smile like lost television screens
Like Sentinels and Converters
Like the Lake...
And Thunder

Ghostwave Commons

There is no division so vast or so great that we cannot overcome it
There are no tired wheels so worn-out that they cannot roll and roll
and roll

There is no sky-scraping sorrow so deep that I would not care
No miles, or markers or posts can dissuade
No broken plans that cannot be remade

Step out into the commons
The tide rises and the cold, black water comes up to your ankles
The prey fish swim about
as if they know their time is up
Reach out your hand and feel the breeze, solar born and staid
it is me, calling through slow staircases and headaches and lack of sleep-
Still wanting you

codebook reboot

you are my 3 a.m.

1.2 wt

"Don't be so far away"
The letter reads
I bit my lower lip as I thought about it

Your eyes, how they shine
In pictures and in memories-
Of what has come and what I wish for
Simple animals they are, memories

Nightly, I rewrite my letter to you
Do you see it?
It is in songs and in laughter
It is in "I miss you"
This letter

I fold it each night when I offer a tiny farewell
I always mean to comeback,
So 'goodbye' will never do
I just can't say it now
Or ever

I send you this letter every day and night
At the table, eating breakfast alone
At the sink, trying to muster the energy to drag myself in to work
At my desk, work suffering for a chance to think of your eyes and pictures
I make sure to remember them
And you
Daily

Each day, in a way, I send it
My letter to you
Telling you that I-

description of materials

On fire
Burned
Reborn
Revived
Told you would fit in fine
(I don't feel like I fit in)
Anymore
Anyday
The at-long-last guns fire
And it makes me feel as though my time and days and feelings and dreams-
Stolen
All taken away

Pressure against the rib cage
Dry tongue, eyes stinging

Moreover, the world continues
Fast-moving senators and prostitutes and their children
I am nothing like them
I am the outside through
Smoke windows
Through blank walls
Through it all
On fire

What Do You Think About When You see My City in a Sad New Piece?

I wish you would have come through town at night
I would have loved to have shown you all of its lights

More Palaces

Lightning races soft and dishonest across sky and pupils and here
Where shadows sleep with the calls of night birds
"Heart stops" cries the reckoner
His eyes ablaze, his skin bronze
Arms akimbo as the sun rises and threatens to burn
Them, you, me.

Dear dancer and faint whisperer- I have called you a hundred-million times
My mind daring me
pressing me to "go on, act, what ever it may be".
Very good then
and what brings on these flowers and bullets and cat-smiles

His name was Dave- my father's father. I am told he was tall
He was struck by an automobile while walking his dog.
He did not survive
I was too young to remember him
But, I like to think he thought the world of me
and did his dog understand he was gone and never coming back

When I weep, it's for something or nothing at all
Where will we end up?
When will we be...
Where there be room enough for us?

I hope we will need more palaces.

The Diameter of a Speck of Dust

Saints breathe whiteblue light
It is calm and chaos at once
Gentle wake-ups press against the inner ear and speak:
"It is morning, there are bombs."

Older toys rest in chests, their dust, a blanket
Easy steps to the top
Not so much pain/discomfort
Gunmetal angels fall and let fire loose on the soil, shaking the specks and particulates free of their flat and round and obtuse resting places

Come to the isle, despite your wasp fears
Speak to the locals and learn to lie
Grow your wings and shake free the millions little worlds, ascending in whiteblue light

the best parades of the mute

Dear firelight
in somber afternoon
with no water or clean floors
or spring scents warming you back to life
you can endure

Dear race cars
no more metal shots from the cameras
friends and family upstairs with vodka/or/gin/or/strawberries

Dear surgeons
bless this last house
standing
I believe, one year later-
we have done well for ourselves

Like you will
when you warm up

hmmngbrd

be still northlights
be still dear lake
on top of all of the day's fire and ash and silt
we are beginners
so we must be easy with our steps

an animal a day
which will this one be?
Our paragliders are a fine and brave lot
they fight well
they belong

be still little bird
even the speedster must sleep
on top of this night's howls and whispers and weeping
we are survivors
and we will do

placid.glass.assignment

Titan's glass spires call to you as a soon to be ex-lover may offer you one final kiss goodbye

Titan's spent lakes and vapor-villagers march through the shadow canyons
and down funeral stairs
Look close - beyond their static faces
and remember yourself in her doorway, never wanting to go
and she looks you straight and deep in the eyes and smiles the smile of a million fires
and you are burning

Snowglass comes and makes us run to cover
Somber wind howls a low howl
It whispers a low whisper to you in corners and at the docks of memory
She is there; seeing you off
You recall thinking to yourself
'I have never seen you so lovely'
and as you watch her shrink on the shoreline with your departure
your vessel itself disappearing
you wish you had told her aloud

Titan's council assembles on the edge of night's red/brown nowhere
This is where the kings and princes and keepers of
kings and princes come to close their eyes and hum into the void
Tears stream down you face
A warm reminder of what you knew would always happen - what always does happen

You turn the screen off
Her goodbye still ringing in either or both hemispheres of you brain
You look out the small window at
the tall, flawless structures

Titan's spires call to you

and you shudder

HEAVY-LIFTER

Goodnight, Lions
Carpenters at the Gateway wave and borrow and make tanks for the move
More narrow steps include the drunks praying their way out of the bottle and into the hospital
Too late to change the course of disease in their gut

Maybe tomorrow I shall call on you, fists
There is a particularly unkind soul that shadows me in the office
A sour pill that fucks my nerve
And distracts me

Get away from my door
Your battle hymn
Good soldier, heavylifter, flotsam
You
Really
Are

Pyramidtown

The burn-time
Science
Contests
182 Paratroopers are lost and now are in the water
and speak French
Ineffective

To Mother, We fired across the bridge and watched the tanks turn into commuter cars
The Light-ups and captures
the Path
They all sing
Lines are down, down, down
Coming daylight
in Pyramidtown

284 miles (approximately)

Various stars align in abstention
The King and Queen
The Wind and The Soil

Here is your stake
Upon a mountain
Upon Hope
Upon time and the waxing and waning

Your miles of miles and miles
Your red/white
A mention of boys and girls and cars
All of it is centrally located
Here and nowhere else

I learned 3 new chords for you
I made them up and taught myself
I cursed myself
I drowned

KHM II

come to the party, old friend
a soul like yours is always welcome
sunshine or clouds
you are welcome

one last cup of farewell
like written, wrote... done

I will finish what it was you had started

come to the party, old friend
a shine like yours is always welcome
freedom and Elysium
you are welcome

one last cup of farewell
like going, going...