~*~
Who's counting but
inchworm on the sun visor. Measured sways
for branches. 60 red moons since his face.
At the lights, where I had turned for his place,
I didn't even glance left. 3 blocks past,
Smile-hum, words forward buzz; lapse's collapse.
After muggy weeks, wet awake. At last
a requiem for our Methuselah.
Finally that us is past. Subhan'allah.
In the desert, rain blossoms the cholla
present. Ribbon laughs out windows. The sound
and wind, clear route away and I, all found.
At roundabout, stop, let worm to the ground.
~*~
assignment: to make
missing posters for bliss
with a description and
what reward it will offer.
thumbtack to trees.
will it be more read
or less than some post
of the internet fence
wild indifferent profusion
crowding to the wire.
~*~
each year hotter
youth is a heeled shadow that dogs
a humbugless bah. let what can't be said
be gestural. say we are too old for ______
looks, like Shatners, meta-actors
we caricature a buffet of excuses. cloistered
in windowless refuge to bathroominate. can
you conscience that I'll not answer
how university boys keep getting older
fresh faced as good tomatoes, mid-winter
then a grandchild appears, soft. 20 seems
further in time than any space we want crossed.
babysmell of diapers. one note symphonies
don't garner sympathies. it's not winter
inside my sweater. in a flash. knit is tighter
~*~
---
safe: pretend numbers are
numbers, protesters amass
without weight pray
tell how are these romantic
escapades, necessary? say
how mouths are best advised to open
-- to eat cheetos, don't speak of that
between hollywood and news page blur
army men left alive, standing,
fold themselves to origami worry, numb
ptsd distributed free to all
where are the red capes? capers
they know nothing, masochists all
they get off on
armageddon delayed, Esc key,
(channel and page flip) stare
down middle space, hard, escape
slipped away? sip away
lager then life, air, count out
breaths left, actionable is choice:
watch proffered petals fall.
--
~*~
all straw talking
kind is a skin naming saints hiding this all that again him
again milk list signs him this is plain all him
a kind skin naming saints what hiding is this
his tin skin lips will saint
mind signs naming plain -- thing i sing-said i'm talking birdsing
i can't & i am singing his naming & a straw past
& i will brink his mind again if brink is mad again
straw mind a him first him hiding again skin
parts think him
his mind naming plain this brink hiding him
if mad is is mad as saint
thing i sing is all saints brink again
mad brink again bird backs that claim
will mad-hat him & will him liking again
this is a sort of plunder verse. It is from a series where all the words in the poem are chosen under the constraint of containing only "i" or "a" and which are contained in bpNichol's poem "talking about strawberries all the time" http://www.chbooks.com/archives/online_books/zygal/46.html
~*~