Simple and Silly

The distance
is not great
but the minutes slip by
so slowly.
This space is so empty
this light is so gray
come wake up the sun
and pour some light in this place.

The wind broke my umbrella
snapped it in half
but the rain wasn’t so bad
reminded me of you.

And the music the music the music
keeps me company
the half mumbled lyrics in the night
spiraling conversations
that have no destination
but always end
with muffled goodbyes.

And the sky looks like
the sun is setting
in some awful part of the earth
but
soon
soon
soon
we will exhaust ourselves
with one another
and wake up and do it all over again.

We have left half cracked tea cups
in our wake
pick up the pieces
glue them
and make a Picasso .

The things I miss ,
I wont give you some list
some tribute to your attributes.
they are simple and silly
and that’s how I feel
simple and silly
but at least your simple and silly with me.

We are dancers around a fire
barefoot and with out purpose
around and around we go
spinning and feinting and swaying.
The shattered light
shows the truths we fought
and my tambourine is singing the same song
it sung so long ago
a steady rhythm like the pounding of our feet
only with a jingle and a jangle.

Hail like Pearls

Michigan winters
Grey like purgatory
Flat and shapeless, desolation
Praying doesn’t make the cold fade
The sun can’t penetrate
This curtain of cloud
Forged by god himself.

Wrapped in artificial furs
The slush and mush
could cave in any door
Your foot prints
Lead away form the pearly gates.

Seasons shift around
Twisting like strands of fate’s
Great tapestry
This all comes to me
Walking the path
Between here and there
Where the clouds absorb
the blue light of clarity.

(Winter 2007)

Let’s Discover

I’ll take you to the place
where mermaids sleep
you’ll twine your fingers
in their hair
and we’ll swim fast enough
that their song wont entrance us
leaving only bubbles in our wake.

I’ll show you the world
the way I’ve always seen it
pinks and violets smearing the sky,
even when it’s the clearest blue
I can see the edges of the moon
in the middle of the daylight
you’ll never look at the grass the same
so much greener from this angle.

The desert we’ll explore together
cactus blooms and raging winds
meet bill the lizard
and underneath the joshua trees
we’ll sleep.
I have never been
but imagine the heat and pressure
of the sun’s bleaching presence
will be much more bearable
with your hand in mine
we could face down anything
maybe if we stay still enough
in this place father time
wont notice us.

And Yet This Somehow Feels Inadequate

A constellation of connections
I could label them all
and it still wouldn’t
show you all the ways
I’m riveted to your presence.

we’re in this place
and neither want to leave
because its full of aspirations
that could pop like bubbles
on everyone else’s reality
so maybe we won’t go
that’s fine with me.

We are already addicted
to each others touch, quirks and smiles.
how did we get so deep
so far below the surface
that we can’t think with out feeling
I can’t think with out thinking of moments
time will take some of them
but I’ll horde as many as I can
to keep me company when I’m alone.

Just lay here next to me
Just absorb the heat
Just feel each heartbeat
Just remember when
its all up hill
that we had this amazing view
the whole way.

Offerings

This is what
pink clouds
at sunset feel like,
water colored rays of light
create an existential paradise
but this feeling isn’t sinking
its rising
streaking across the sky
this is the dawn of spring
before the ground has thawed,
falling into step beside someone
strides match up and
it seems like
you’ll be walking a long time
but neither mind
got no destinations to find
just a place to fall asleep
together the dark is your friend
as nights turn to morning
and secrets come to surface
this is all so natural.

Got to Find a Quieter Place

There are too many people
Crammed in this space
They keep jabbering
Each in a different langue
And the collective babble
Reminds me vaguely of a
Foreign film I saw once
In some Slavic tongue.

Some of them even
Walk into the walls
Even though there’s
barely room to turn around.
In the center
like an axis
I’m spinning to fast
To make out their faces
Its just the constant noise against my ears
That tells me they’re still there
Sometimes I shut my eyes so tight
I see spots but when I open them
The dots of light fade
But the blur of their faces doesn’t
How did we all get caught
In this cage of human interaction?
And why are we all stuck
So close together
So that I can’t tell which storyline
Is mine or theirs or her’s or his?

Your the Kite Caught in the Wind

This is delicate
this is cast iron
this is me throwing myself
at a speeding train.
If I fall fast enough
I’ll land out of harms way,
if I fall slow enough
I wont have to feel the fallout.
I wont fear the ending
before it begins.

This is delicate
this is cast iron
this is me slashing at
my water wings.
I’m ready to swim
to tread water,
to watch the sun snuff itself
in a salt free sea.

Somehow we came
to be irrevocably entwined.
The connection was
forged in fire
tempered in ice
cemented in the paths
we walk each day.
My mind is on rewind,
I’ll cast a light
that kills the shadows
that follow you home
that eat you alive
while you sleep
while you think
while you breathe real deep.

This is delicate
this is cast iron
this is me.

Staring in the Sun

I want to sink slowly into the sun
so I never have to feel the chill
of this cold planet again.
I know in that heat
even my atoms would forget
all the things I’ve been.

Some days I daydream
About what’s beyond all that atmosphere
If the clouds
didn’t blot the blue out of the sky,
like sheep’s fluff fighting against gravity,
I might have a better idea
what the stars really are.

When the fiddle sticks fall
maybe I’ll understand
what’s going on beneath it all,
what makes the hydrogen and oxygen combine
what spark started it.
Divine intervention couldn’t save
some of the souls I’ve seen
so lost in this permafrost
existence.

Irrational Desires

Sometimes I wish
I could sleep for weeks or months at a time
outside of aging
just waiting for the prickle of change in the wind
that would tell me the world
was worth experiencing again.

The sun and moon
would waltz across the sky
I would pay them  no mind
their games of light and dark
would just be a back drop
to my uninhabited home.

To not be aware of
the pressure of the universe
would be a wonderful thing
even if it were just one day
time passes so slowly or quickly
depending on what way
you look at the clock.

This is All so Temporary

If you jump
from a high enough surface
the wings will,
in an explosion of downy
feathers, propel you forward
even though no one will
be the wiser
such things
are invisible to most men.

The metamorphosis complete
you will smile a touch more
the wings will flutter
when they walk near
and your eyes will always
see it a bit more clear,
as though you were born with this
clairvoyance instilled
In your soul.

I am waiting for
the sun to rise
holding each breath
against better judgments.
In the heat of the summer
it will all make sense again
the reason we keep moving
perpetually closer
to the edge of everything.