This Timeless Happy Age

— the flashing waves
rollin on the greatest lake
with the wind sparkling in our ears and
the inexorable sunlight dancin loudly
in our eyes —

Your face is laughin at the storms
that I heard rumors of
— because, y'say,
the sky is clear —
The sky, I see, is blue and white like a
sapphire pitcher of steamin milk — such a hot
day it is that even the ghosts
are sweatin all around us

My arms are pink and
your back is brown...

The laziest god you are, fallin asleep
with smile lines by your eyelids and the blindin
water at your side, while I lie
Under the emptiness of summer
and dream little things
For you and me and us together
in this timeless age
of happy
weather
— in this happy age
of timeless
love —

English 5th Hour 101

Voice of husky dusky nights
Sleepy darky longish eyes
Velvet browny blacky curls
Skin of coffee toffee bronze

Smile of whitey slighty sly
Lopey long-legged tilty gait
Slender slopey skinny waisty
Laugh of scratchy chokey joy

Salmon shirtsy
Stripey shortsy
Straightish nosey
Nobby kneesy

Everybody look at Logan!

Work Out

I just want
Things
To work out the way
They were planned way back

When God made the world

I just want
Things
To be good and right

I want everyone to be happy

And mostly I want things to work
So that I can be with you
Forever.

The Bridge of Sighs

The Bridge of Sighs
Yellow dusty fog settles
The burial shroud
Of two children who
Dreamed themselves to
Be in love
The Bridge of Sighs
The moaning river
Passes under slowly and
Stickily, it remembers
Their tears falling as
Processions streamed across
Its darkened waters
The funeral of two
Children who dreamed
Themselves to be in love
The Bridge of Sighs
Silent stones tell no one
What passed that
Fateful night, the
River was smooth and
So very still it sidled
Under the bridge unaware
Of two children who
Dreamed themselves to
Be in love and were
Murdered
There in the cold night air, their bodies folding
Together like petals of a dying flower, falling
Over the edge of the bridge of sighs into the
Unfeeling waters below
It was jealousy
I think

Background

Why would it be a picture
of yourSelf when you were blonde
and innocent ---
that you stare at every day?
When I comment, you point at it
with shaking fingers and let out
a forced laugh.

In the blurry picture,
your hand is outstretched;
you are, I think, asking for something
with an expectant, shiny smile ---
your eyes are brilliant in your childish face,
they stand out like stars against your olive baby skin
I can still see the stars
in your eyes
today.

What were you asking
way back then in the picture?
Who were you reaching for?
--- or does it not matter ---

Maybe you are reaching out for someone
who loved you
once
Maybe you are asking
for someone to notice that the stars in your eyes
are fading.

Love Poem

Tonight I saw the moon for the first time in a while
It was still a bright and shining pearl
The leaves were inky black lace, fossilized in the night sky.

There's a car across the street
Its lights make two yellow paths on the wet ground
A crowd of three strolls past
Laughing too loudly in the still darkness.

My blankets are a pile of blue stripes on my bed
The humming of the night rolls through my window.

My thoughts are full of you tonight, (aren't they every night?)
and I am thinking of your legs and your cheekbones
How they are nice
to look at

The pictures hanging on my wall are of people I love
And people I know
But you aren't there (you don't have to be)
because I know that if we were together
We would shine brighter than a thousand Suns

My Aphotic Mind

writhing in darkness as thick and impenetrable as wet cement
someone asked me a question — his stygian irises boring into my chilly core
i couldn't answer for a thousand days because i didn't understand
what he said — i was distracted by his fathomless voice so deep and rough
so algid
i wept when his hand touched mine — because it was so cold
maybe he was dead, i thought
so when i finally heard his question — so strange it was
he asked me who i loved — his ancient voice was afraid of the answer
i searched his terrifying face for the reason why
he cared
his deathly features waited in anxiety for my reply — i felt his icy hand in mine
each breath i drew was matched by my questioner — his lonely lips parted and trembling
prepared i was to answer in haste
to hear his inquiry in this darkened place and reply with my hands clenched in fists —
my guarded heart beating faster with defensive fear

i didn't know

— my fortifications shrinking within me —
how desolate this angry aphotic mind was — how alone

i couldn't answer for a thousand days
to tell him who i loved
and when i finally spoke my voice was soft and silky like the first rose of summer
i wept with each word
because his hand in mine was cold — like the snow that killed me

i do not love you —
i did not know
you cared

writhing in darkness as thick and impenetrable as wet cement
i will always be —
for i cannot forget his fathomless voice
so algid
but not with hate — oh no
his voice was cold — his hands were cold
with heartbreak