Marbles

These words write me in their
Abrupt strokes // syllables
In my hands they are bullets // blood
Capture me in your words
Shackle me to their meanings
Kiss me like a karenina
Before the train
// Marbles roll back and forth
My tongue is sweet

Water

Now that you are water under the bridge
And the bridge itself
And the tree that fell
And the pebbles praying
Your symphonic requiem
Now you know more than
Anyone I know
And I am eternally grateful
To the grace of the spheres
For your welcoming hands

Take it

We start our climb again
Like trees snaking our way up
Nights longing
Days pulling double duty
What is it about
This need to see everything
This need to be sure
To draw conclusions from
Straight lines
Let up — the Universe is
Giving you a break
Take it
Take it
Take
It

Time

The future advances its incursion
Speed of light appears non-negotiable
Thirty years is a puzzle
An angry thought, I dissipate
The question — a big bang:
Am I the origin of this Universe?

Eager

Discovering-
An eager truth awaits
Lost somewhere within

Energy states

Impermanence belies
Deceptive transformations
In energy states

Immigration reform

They are the fence at the border of you and me
A volunteer army acting of its own volition
Not subject to my current orders
Living its appointed destiny to a “t”
A militia armed and dangerous plotting
An overthrow of any perceived threat

I have prepared their Purple Hearts
And notes of gratitude for their loyal service
And their honorable discharge packages
Along with the parting gift watches
I wish them a happy and fruitful retirement
As I do the hard work on immigration reform
At the border of you and me

Essence

Nevertheless it
All reflects something else that
Is not essential

Dusk

You attached yourself to
Every molecule in my body
In a covalent bond
I have walked in your shadow
On your pavement I am complete
Like a puzzle like a lie like a fool
You are the oxygen deficit in my blood
Early in a sprint as I drown in lactate
Unable to clear it as if in organ failure

This is the failure of my soul
This longing to be to do to see
Myself proved like a theorem
Like a theory like a crime
Like all is nonsense that cannot feel
Without the danger of explanations
That cannot be without thought
That cannot see without
Mistaking it for meaning
That cannot be accepted without
Your oversight

Be the meaning I need
Forgotten chased away
That tweaked my nose in flight
With a promise of capture
And has not yet returned
From its exile
Throw back the curtain
The Milky Way is trying to tell you
The truths of your birth
The truths of your lineage
The truths of the shadows upon
Which you step with such conviction
Look listen feel and you may
Just be reborn into the complete
Unknown unbeckoned
Unnecessary unexpected
Love in the sun on an afternoon
Like the one you lost on that pavement
In the dusk of your innocence

Silver

You understand that the silver lining
Is the same black and ice as the cloud
Only seen more clearly
Through tears’ experience
Just as your grief is not separate
From the wood in the fire
Melting into ashes
When it folds you in its embrace