April's End

abrasive as the bark of an oak

sharp
grasping

yet we desire to feel that rip of palm

the catch

the cut

helpless

helpless as any ethereal thought

a day-dream perhaps lingering there in the grey breeze
produced by forty thousand currents of light
colliding into a puffball of nothingness

empty-set
stasis

a boiling rumpled cosmic stasis

movement proves heavy
fragile

the residue of of passionate possibility lingers

yet

history repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats

suddenly there is a dance, a shimmy
a flicker of hope
darting

tasting of blue grass

pointing west out of the chaos of this day
this pocket of complacency

hold on

tight

texture discovered

such are pages
of
pressed and watered alchemy

leaf
stem
bud
flower
pressed
pressed again
stirred
smoothed
rinse repeat
dried
in
time
and
sun
rinse repeat
a page
becomes
pages
becomes
a tome
ink presses upon the page
pressed
again
and
again
a story told
in nature's traces
shadow
to
light
to shadow once
again ...

cassini dive

torn
pearled clustered resilience
constellations array
in
Saturn's ringed display
moon-shadow firmament
decided
jesters wed amidst lemongrass
sea glass
rent & gleaming sorrow
seemingly
open opens
regret tossed to fire
ice to desire melted
no felted broken wing here
hearts & cherry bones intact
leveled golden evermore
thistled valore chasms fast
barnacled
particle bliss
remaining
come here! take my hand!
as
objects can appear smaller
and
of
such
amber verdant dust
stars flannel opalescence
diamond's
resin home

OM MANI PADME HUM

salt cedar wax wing

tale abider
myth glider
smooth berry thief
upon
tamarisk's
slender brined branch
velvet feathers polished
whisper sigh flawless
you wait
poised
1000 years
7000 miles
low-woodland flyer
lost within desert briar
thirsty you must be
greening
preening
your cap of red pearls
oh! so creamy gray
your dazzle
how do we steward your
amaranth oasis?
oh! winged budded wonder
how
do we tame
your abundance?
trill bzeeee
trill bzeeee
you smooth bohemian
trill bzeeee

winter lingers

rain falls
gray clouds call
green trembling pinballs
against spring
uprising
uncompromising
come nightfall
snow has a fling
ice to bring
winter's wall

afterparty

Let the earth bind fast to your nobility rising
Let the vastness of heaven rest upon your shoulders
Let your mind crack apart with wonder
as thought turns to honey
hardened to amber resin
timeless
tempered
by the winter of your bones
lips part, mouth opens
and peregrines fly out
to roost upon those lips
ruby-bruised by feathered intensity
and talons ...
tethered
to
revolution
evolution
and quilted sorrow's shine
we watch
we taste
the azure waiting

tucked

Behind the jacquard
white golden chestnut
pressing
pressing
secreted cave of mid-century construct
tucked
my passage of discovery
found
away from day
away from light
stolen from the deepest cut of night
my underground
sprawled beneath
this angled arched canopy
hidden childhood tapestry
moments stolen
from
the ordinary
into words treasured
turn the page
down rabbit holes
and
nursery rhymes
the crevasses of Shangri-La
Five Little Peppers
Tom Sawyer's adventures
Little House on Prairie mine
A Wrinkle in Time
I am little
yet
beneath my hands
the world awaits
turn the page
escape
the
pressing
pressing
white golden chestnut
construct
turn the page
~ become ~

lapin d'mal

Eschewing the drolleries for something finer 
no easy task
no evil bask 
prone to darkness dementia claims 
no venture towards the dark today 
upon wild mad dogs & snails they rode 
carrying parts 
of
owl tarts  
wrens of gold & crimson leaf 
to battle man and all he seeks 
Come ye rabbits look to the Sun! 
leave your dark 
forego this lark 
meditate on something finer 
find this day your tales brighter 

the first time ever i saw your face

it would have been easier to not love you
easier to grasp the boundaries & channels of citrine
away from the tangle
away from the amber-walnut of your thighs
easier to hear your name in unlikely places
to visit the spaces
pressed between thunderstorms
and
the glimmer of rainbow trout
reel to reel imprints
coloring outside the lines
unrecognized
uncharted
easier to connect the blue to gray
yesterdays
to
the cinnamon cardamon carousels
shadows whirling undetected
heartbeats
undiscovered
this laced romance
this whatever .... feathered necromancy
no democracy
only nuanced fantasy
timeless
breathless
ever poised upon the wire-razor ledge
it would have been easier
to not
love
you
love you

tabia

One hundred and twenty-one rules
castled angst brimming anarchy
resplendent in violet & linen
back pressed against the unforgiving width of you
hot--pissed--weakness
folded in revolution's temperance
fuck off you jovial duffer
allow me to wallflower here amidst
the bone whiteness of lost memory
hunted
pursued lady
arched & leaning into somnolent disdain
sacrifice the play or the piece?
time squared becomes love's blunder
Oh brevity!
Oh bare mad king!
defer to my stubborn brilliance
from this perched edge of fortress forced
surrender
winged redemption
walked
and
won

how a bird learns its song

small silent quiet the day no stirring no whisper stilling the surface of things light refracted reflected air becomes tangibly feathered warm against the surface of things rippling the water slightly softly pressing green of things building building opus major roaring swelling turning dust across the surface of things thick blinding storm of things blue to dark bluer to gray to darkness tumbled to rain streaming in torrents pounding relentless thunder pelting wonder lightening striking across prairie and plains riotous unrelenting whipping wildness untethered to puddle upon the surface of things golden and greening and ripe with waiting a break in darkness a crack of light piercing brilliance arrowed on horizon tangerine pink shining small daring this day replete a meadowlark sings 

wren

willow
marbled crispsure
seeped--stirred
melting brillog becomes you
then
fallure
and
sallow
--like old leather
tertain zymetry traced
--tatterloor--
Oh!
reshine again there
held against the bast & darriage of silver
how swell the brulluminated daring of winged things
pierced & geather
for my darning daring plocks
delight in the wondgreen versimox
spidance under the rays of day
evergloor
you branched brarthborn kin
aubade

larghetto

unbuckle the pretense vermillion
tumult stilled
to allow
soft
rain
settling undisturbed
unwind--redefine
this day
innocence surrendered
tendered
unto
this easy coming night
now
twilight
as stars align-shine
with pace placed
and
drowsy
electric
lips
pressed-pinked
willing
darkness
to hover-cover
there
in
the corners
of
waking trees
shadows
lengthen-question
relevance
slowing-growing
redemption
walk with me ....
until we are lost
to
the forecast
of
this indigo evening

lest we forget!

Joseph Rudyard Kipling
acquired a bee-sting
writing atop a pachyderm
nary a  squirm! 

who will emerge after the fire

This revelry of chagalled chimera ghosts circling
dancing, kicking up dust in jangled illusion circling

blue. day injects into veins unfolded to Spring
twirling, bejeweled in teasing hyacinth. circling

steps quickened--anchored to an ancient tune born
bending, melting to rhymes riffed and circling

dreams forever illusive & veiled by razored demons.
idyllic diamonds dusty in mandarin silks circling

following the revelries of fools, lovers & brotherly bites
of tender injustice. leading, circling

sapphire blue escapes from lips peeled & acquiesced
stumbling, falling to magnetic futile attempts circling

this dance of amaranthine dreams. oh! jestered & gypsied
surrender--captivated by the odyssey prize circling

this revelry of chagalled chimera ghosts circling
circling this diamond sparrow circling,
circling.

the scent of rain

rain weighed by wights & weather gray
petrichor pulses upon frayed senses casting tight
pressed against sun's breath & light
shining--pressed to fractures opened wide
this night

ravens & wrens rest in throat's hollow
particular that smell sharp-shimmered--bright
thunder awaiting May and the nest of mallow
lingering languid on tongues tied
this night

thick the morning comes calling soft
lovely this light filtered by forecast
subtle shift the sun slinking shimmer lost
drip, drizzle, dark and vast
becomes the day
this day pulled from night

Jess and the Pink Moon

My 

grand mother's paint-by-number sits upon a walnut shelf 

somehow I still hear the call & pull from somewhere deep down South 

earth crochet lies idle in a vintage chair weaved plaid 

these walls lean in to tell me such tall tales of what I had 

feathers from Algiers 

pork belly home 

sweet potatot swing-sets 

love growing old 

sureness by the fire

bloody marys at noon 

rain on Sunday 

April Pink Moon 

solitary I slumber in this ancient french brass bed 

flannel for my pillow — grey dog by my head 

memories flicker bright & then they flicker dim 

of prairie fields in springtime 

and 

wild fates tempest whim 

feathers from Algiers 

pork belly home 

sweet potatot swing-sets 

love growing old 

sureness by the fire 

bloody marys at noon 

rain on sunday 

April Pink Moon 

norma elaine

a long time waiting 

should have been easy for her

visit this world
take a bow 
an appearance make 

child's play

to

stir the pot

dim the lights

touch my back

change the damn temperature

waken the cat ....

visited by the ethereal & transparent all her life 

she was sure.

i remember the tales of wraiths & the ceiling dwellers

in girlhood bedroom

beige, white-golden dancing

talking with her
teasing

with promises of strange dark travels

wisping in & out thru luxurious stucco walls

wrapping themselves in the rough, bark embraces

of those huge linden trees pillared alongside the house

she could pick up on the most subtle & delicious of ghostly signs 

to her there was nothing benign

why can't i 

what am i missing 

is she there 
am I too disconnected to tell 

damaged
not gifted

have i missed the signs?

or 
does she dwell closer 

behind aqua eyes 

barefoot with a fairy's reflection 

nightshift of April

softening of sun against the white birch
shadowed to the shape and shade of owl bones
settling the feathered things to quiet perch

steadily thickened comes this dark of night
full moon to give a glow to earth and stone
stillness white upon my tongue as starlight

diamonds pressed shining to black of evening
great horned owl calls a timeless haunting tone
night wraps velvet arms of pause--spring breathing

Om ah Hum

in to out
golden trail of morning
where vast blue sky is paused upon a blue jay's tongue
Om ah Hum
Great Eastern Sun cracks the river wide to wanderlust & stars
prescient & primal--veiled no more
Om ah Hum
this day to moonlight
wrong becomes right becomes a flaxen field
Om ah Hum
I am a rabbit amongst tall grasses
awareness tingling electric velvet in dawn
Om ah Hum
dedication rising from sorrow's bed
to find a home along the willow's bones
Om ah Hum
in and out
wind to rain and back again
dark to light
this day
Golden
Om ah Hum

the fool

copper taste of minstrel's ode

lingers there upon my tongue 

this mist of grayest day tinkers for no one 

fortune claims our solitary path 

scarlet bands

holding fast

not of land, no promise tendered 

held in place by something better 

scar tissue armors soft apple places

where hands lingered melting thru 

(collide burns electric-blue) 

while birds & demons speak in tongues 

skin to bone 

no laurel eases 

as hearts hideaway from comet's night 

knowing only smoke & light 

unchain the song 

repair the key 

our souls gray with ash'd debris 

jeans unfurled by ankles pool 
pick a card any card! 
I choose the fool 

you & i 

of

fire & sky 

not of land

no promise tendered 

held in place by something better 

spectrum

a color change
violet to rose
three to four
singular attention focused divided now more

brilliance of another Spring
green-growing-things
riotous molecules
challenged--pushed

the arch of being
pulsing bruised--swollen pinking
the ache resonates quickening
warmth pointedly present

jubilant suffering
celebration
bittersweet these days of you
wee thing slumbering

a color change
violet to rose
these days
a blood-bond confidant evermore

exploiting chances offered by immediate circumstances without reference to a general plan or moral principle

opportunistic we are 
folded into some tangerine origami bird
discarded & bold upon the floor
that truth
catching sunlight and shade
acknowledged and recognized as vital to the pulse of days
somewhere between
the impossible and the fierce
we sing  to the silver gods & monsters of fate pierced
we soothe our bruises in the cool water of ancient acceptance
we balance who we are to the northern star
crispness becomes us
autumn lies dormant in our bones
a tale we write to ourselves at midnight
we alight
we dance to the moon
opportunistic we are 

there will always be birds

A gradual thing
this sidewalk path
day after day
illusionary meandering
season upon season
a path traveled
frost bracing--coolness warming
over and over and over again
this sidewalk path
a gradual thing
becomes
a bridge constructed
iris plateau discovered
cotton socks to skin to skirt to wind
flight plans configured upon the turning of the sun
being becoming
blue becoming sky becoming home
no boundary these cotton socks to skin
all wind
all a rolling vastness becoming
a cerulean Coriolis force
a winged-feathered thing riding peregrine currents
amidst hyacinth and green
tasting of sunshine upon my tongue
feeling of becoming
this gradual thing
this insubstantial Spring

( _____ )

shadows shift
the slow-steady metronome
east to west
play
of
light
restlessness rising as birds chatter incessantly
blue jay to starling to wren
and back again
breeze to branches greening
waking
gray to less-gray
not blue
not today
but a luminescent dove-gray
like the soft underbelly of a dog
Oh!
and if as on cue
a dove coos a block away
heralding the shift
coffee to water to wine
it slips from my grasp again
becoming still

and nearly
rain