Greying bells over the fireplace
A beard on the mantle
It’s you!
I cry out, amused
You suture an answer in silence
Laughter has become rare

Flatline of morning
Silenced are cicadas and crickets
Batwings tucked like prunes
I crawl through the sheets
Hunting
One final dream

I speak of my faults
Like
They are lines in my palm
But
Destinies were never my thing
I
Push to the right
Hoping the guardrail will not be there

It is there
Everytime

You
Wove a spell of acceptance
You
Ran when I showed you my demons
Saying
Barbie, I can’t handle both fake and real you

Does it matter what shape this is in
Now that the wrecker is here
Yes
I’ve never been one big on
Pre-determination
I’ll hit the guardrail
One last time

Caged
She
is fierce and will rip you to shreds
Uncaged
In the jungle
She
will ignore you unless hungry
It is said
Her fur is worth diamonds
But we both know the rippling soul
Beneath
Muscle and tendon
Haunts the daily walks
You take with your dog

It is all wrong til it is done
It is
Existing
And no hollering will undo its knots
No love will grace the brow into breaking fever

But how we relax at last
Into summers undreamt
And winters unwalked
How we relinquish
Even in a monkey grip
Our last breath

Death
Noble and unwelcome
guest to our will’s last

Day zips into her gown
So often we forget to notice
She does it for the rhythm
The cadence of crickets
And oak
Okay, we tell her
You look okay
And the night continues to glisten
In cobwebs and honking frogs
Maybe one day
Maybe one day
She’ll let fall her hair
And ignite the drowsy drapes
Pulled tight over our bedroom windows

patterns of roads
like diamond rattlers
swerve through the grass and sky
But down again
I walk them erring
In path and soul
Called lost again

Needs turn to wants
The ocean turns to salt
In my mouth and hand

I gladly stand
Upon the rock
Above the treeline
Here it is clear
Here I understand
But down again
I tremble

Silent bikes on 3rd Avenue
newspapers wet as salamanders
Thick slaps of gunfire
Trembling hands of my grandmother
As she slipped the lock into its bed
And kissed the eyehole goodnight
I thought
As I had never thought

A dream rended
is life
A half-dream exposed to elements
A life half-slept
Half-awake
Halved
Into haven’t and have
I thought
As I had never thought

Peace in the free crying of a child
Peace in brewing cocoa smells and roasting vegetables
Peace in existing loudly and stinking
I thought
As I had never thought
Of my time with you

That all might fall to me
I shudder
Remembering the slaves of youth
To which I freely fettered
No
I could not shudder more
Nor suffer

Thanks for the consideration
I offer this silent muse
But I’ve no use for everything.