GARDEN, MINE

I garden my remembrances

My roses are speared with thorns

My arms bruised,

My arms welcoming and soft.

 

A crescent cove, that crease where

Your smile breaks,

A wave unfolding tranquil to shore.

 

As I plant a bulb or mulch a thirsty root

The long-ago casual glances—

No, that’s not true, write true.

 

Furtive is true, with longing, a sadness, regret

All those are true, never casual, never ordinary.

 

Always I searched for it

In the topography of your face

 

To go back or reach forward

See you smile into crescent-moonlight cove

Linger for the softest kiss

Its unfolding into sand and silk and your breath

So close.

 

To hear the sibilant calm wave

Temper the dissonance of time

 

If this plausible, this wish if granted,

What enchanted flowers grow here.

 

THE SACRIFICIAL

The goat was injured.

A winsome, all white

Or all black, smooth fur.

A head injury

A small swollen spot

Covering the sanguine rush

She died.

We got ready to bury her

Some bones were shattered

Not ours

Cuddling into it, her death, 

Soon she passed out of memory

It's more peaceful this way,

The goat telephoned to say.

Synthesis

Hard

Under earth chambers

Stairs and carved stone

The sphinx waited — each morsel of soil brushed

Despite the unbearable heat, hot heat

Descending surface seek

Even river water is boiling: desire heat 

Lips lips, melt, want,

That heat

However

The powerless sphinx with chiselled face 

and in awe

We kist in the sleeping room

I am resting my bones

Said the general, a real general, commander of

A lot

I don’t give a fuck

Vibrated the voice of infinity

Your names

Your silk and gold upon mattresses

The titles of a crowning halo

All fineries all spoils: bishops and queen,  

Checkmate (it always ends in checkmate).

The only rules that apply are mine

Plus permanent suffering.

Everyone’s are gonna get brittle eventually

Deossification? Diagenesis? Dust?

I love the energy

Inconsequential
Subatomic
Infinitesimal

Dusting particles in my backyard

The weaklings think fear

The strong need weaker game

Electrifying

          It

          Has

          Been

          This

          Way

          And will continue to be.

          What change? 

          What change?

         

          Never change

          This is the way I love you

          It

          Has

          Been

          This

          Way

          And will continue to be.

          What change? 

          What change?

         Never a change

         That's the way to Olympus

The tumulus curves like a wedding cake with a lion on top

Who swallowed the bride and groom

These things happen no need to be innocent about it why are you crying

Little girl old girl why are you crying

Below as beyond

Turbulence and chaos and a black hole

The buried virgins tall and amply carved turned into marble

The matriarch was mortal after all

The general’s family was bludgeoned to death

The horse was cremated but its spirit lives on

The baby died: Megalocephaly

It was a beauty to behold 

For the noble and courageous grand style

I’ll remember you, promised infinity

I'll make sure you get a workout 

Particle by particle 

By particle by particle by parti—

Parts in synthesis, you do you understand me?

It will be magnetic but without purpose

Purpose

Exists where gravity

Twisted
The shape of infinity while moving through static 

                               

            There is no limit to infinite love 

            Never

            Boundaries to boundless patience

            There is no limit to infinite love

            That’s such a lovely song, sing it again!

            There is no limit to infinite love 

            Never

            Boundaries to boundless patience

            There is no limit to infinite love

In Memory Of Robert Thompson

1: Night

One by one 

Lights flicker and snuff out

The city is shutting down

A street organ is playing

Spinning the music of long ago

Songs of desire and loss

Songs of betrayal

Wine-soaked singing

Molasses the sounds

Drifting in the jasmine scented night

2:  A Dream

Come to me shadow and starlight

Come for one unmeasured moment

I want

Flesh to flesh

Interlaced

Your stubbled salt cheek

 3:  Salonika

They were two  

And holding hands

Before, I had known them as one and one

The girl's hair yellow like ripened lemons

Fell in sharp angles around her face

Her man laughed a confident laugh

He enjoyed laughter

I understood
Too late Too close to twilight

After the ravages took hold

I took stock

We wandered leisurely on the promenade

Heading westward toward the tower

It was a prison once

Its captives, who were they?

Bruised souls with forgotten names

Their screaming silenced now

and ashes, ashes

returning southward to a home lost

ashes moving through space

dispersing over the beloved hills

over the familiar sea

she carried her numbers, bright blue

4: Time

We sailed into the small hours

The two-masted caique was brightly lit

Its crew calling for passengers

He was first on the gangplank

And it was a floating bar we walked into

No particular time chuckled the waitress

We close when we run out of customers

Heineken with a light misting of seawater 
He said

This drink has a pleasing taste,
Produced by hugging

Hugging?

The gunwale with one hand

A mug of beer with the other

We swung by our table for refills    

As the boat rocked

As the breeze picked up

Our careless chatter

The broken clock

We are sailing still

STEEL BLUE

Mid-March returned with

Grey pearl sky of elsewhere

Summer

Familiar the opaque murky essence

Parceled into rectangles

Each pane the same melancholy hue

A solitary hawk

Frequent companion

Of my cloistered awakenings

Circled the oak

Lenses mapping

The barren view

The raptor decides:

A glide, a swerve

A clutch mangles

There is no camouflage for game

Beneath my bedclothes

Chill

Till dreams kindle remembrance

I gazed off the starboard bow

Amid the steel blue of depth and height

My vision burning umber

Again

The memory of an impermeable clasp

Again

Unmeasured brightness, unmeasured sorrow

The chaste huntress and the luscious cunt

Slay them

As I am spinning, spinning 

Spinning stained umber

I fall off into the roundness of the earth