The Cause

Feeling blunt and razored thin think to burn what all has been a tornado of notebooks a forest of thoughts what is the purpose except tie yourself in nots
Not good enough not hot enough once I walked a steel blue edge of melancholy and it fed my pages now flat mesas no bumps no ditches to find the song in

Lost is it

Isn’t it lost output shaving the clouds for some dream that will taste like soap
Then why

Because I must

Then why not see

Because I must improve

Popular is fourteen year old girl territory I’m talking soul touch
To do that to feel that to read that
That is what drives me
And almost almost
So close to something like Christmas
To something holy

No I’m just ranting
Good night

ReJoyce

The moon mutters his presence we raise hands in salute burnt coffee night browned teeth hellos stars like rich cavities filled

A clarinet player practices into the night squeak smack through the decent walls frustration of one build into frustration of all

I’m running pathways into the tall grass following my past I need a way back
Even if it’s just to place my nose on the glass and breathe that I see you I see you I see you so

Don’t you quit

Hold On, I’m Coming

Such rage at helplessness like jalapenos in your nose rage
The silly cartoon rage
Nothing to be done rage
But take the hit on the chin
And begin again rage

Rage that swells the forehead veins
Yet no thought comes–rage
Except the name
Which makes you cry rage

Rage at your limitedness- limited
Rage at the system- systemically followed to achieve
Rage at your fatigue
The turned eyes of others
And tomorrow we take that rage into a baseball sized fist
And demand they catch what
They’ve dropped before.

O, pretty bird

O, pretty bird
Stung with yellow so rare
Do you have a song that breaks the heart
Then makes it whole

O, pretty soul
Flecked with gold
An aura with blinked white edges
What’s your word without your song

O, pretty poet
With golden eye and one brown blue beside
What is treasure
The right or the left
Which would you pluck out
And sell to me
To fill this hole in my heart

I’ve lost my rhythm
I’m tired
I’m broken

O, pretty bird
Sing to me

O, pretty soul
Speak to me

O pretty poet,
Give me your eyes

Be Okay, Please, Be Okay

The problem is the devil cares to mind his tail while we try to keep up with his hooves

So focused was I on the chorus of fine I counted your offbeat cadence -in candor-as typical of the vehicle you operated which is to mean teenager

So when you turned and said
I’m not fine

I listened halved in heart to keep the rhythm
And when you said
She abuses me
Quartered and ready
To dance the dance of not fine with you until the end of time

Or fine became the tune

But you found silence and now I tread here looking for you

I will not stop coming for you

Snatched

Snatched
Too late were we
Too weak too few

Unattainable discourse of children we’ve lost our willingness to be them to believe them to echo a sentiment long dead trust without word without bond unboned we’ve become the cartilage the gristle of America reground and served up raw as millet as wheat we chafe the closest to heaven and grasp for the grave

Dearest Sarah

Dearest Sarah,

When the wolves stop howling at the moon, we will not stop howling for you

We will not stop coming for you
There will be no forgetting, no pledge
Just the extended hand to catch you if you fall
And then you fell
And where were we
Waiting perched like helpless owls
So now, dear Sarah,
Now we howl
You will not go into the night alone
Our voices raise with your own
We are on all sides
We will not let them forget
There is no crack for you
Except the crack of dawn

Depression

The impatience of winter
Measuring lifespans in teeth
The snoring bear wakes hungry
The frogs freeze in their beds
Winter’s
Long
Breath
Felt from fall to spring
The trap snapping some eve
-ning
And we laugh
Pull out wool
To hide the shudder of death
On our breath