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.

Borrowed wings
Grateful for their weight
Shed
For sprouting from my blades
Stronger white pinions
And hollow bone

White feather
Remember me
For I have forgotten
Where I have placed you
But our touch still warms me

Hope is the sacrifice of doubt for effort
-toward an effort not seen by mortals
-toward an end that begins again
Oh, dust it off now and again
Shake its dark glittering surface to the sun and say,
“I believe despite the distance.
I abandon comfort and reward now for greater gifts.
I believe I trust I hope
For I have prayed earnestly
The answer was not removal of the burden
But comfort
But hope
But love
And for this I rise again and again

The base of this mountain shifts
A disc of rocks spun into the dirt
Held together by a screw stuck in a cog
To get it to fly
I must
I must cave the entire glory into nothingness
To arise, I must pull the balancing pin

I’ll sing you the mountains flat
If you will it
Or walk them bloody and long
Til I reach the peak
Them drop to my knees in worship of you
I know where my help is from
I bow to the valley the setting sun
And make my way back down
Snow drifts melting into my hair

Death spoke to me in parable
Of cheetah and disaster
I cannot recall how I received
But I did not remember