I've Been Silent, But Productive...

2.6  Now Here

Hurtling through infinity

black as light’s leaving

it strives to arrive

on time and in fashion

but those of us who sit

and pray grow weary

in this garden of light

eyes straining for boundary

made indecipherable

by glare and gleam

and you are nowhere.

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2.7  Deteriorata

Your silence fills my mindspace

packing my ears with wax

and sealing the night’s end

a deaf bickering match

over dessert unplanned

but not unrehearsed

where no one can win

but those who wish us ill

and their ilk

and tomorrow

will begin with fresh hurt

and new reasons

for silence when so many words

are dying to be spoken

waiting to go unheard.

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2.8 A Poem Without Looking

Forced merriment for your sake

breaks my back and shoulders

with want for silence

and a single cool glass

filled three quarters

full of water and one quarter 

with ice and in my country

where I don’t scream at you

until my throat fragments

and you don’t insist on being constant

in your vigilance of feeling

that is not too much to ask.

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2.9  Tarot

The seven of swords

tell me to take

a higher road than he

who lives in same scarcity

while the time is right

for whatever plans

a man at my junction

is supposed to have

and yet even with

a lifetime of choices behind

and nothing but an open field

leading me to a mountain

blue with the glow of success

I shuffle the possibilities

under the table

and hope no one needs

to consult my cards

until I find the Fool.

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2.10  Ditty

Perhaps mine to envy

to study and to paint

to measure against the present

and to weigh against the fade

but never mine to hold

to hear a heartbeat fast

to make a life inside of

Now you’re only in the past.

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2.11  For Robb

It’s something about your eyes

the way they gleam

when you’re amused

the crinkles at the corner

and those cheeks

that I can’t always see

because your hands 

are over them with fingers

in your nose

and your feet padding in place

It’s something about your shoes

warm and loose

and tucked right nearby

when I just need to run out

to grab the mail

or toss the trash

that makes me feel

like curling up in your lap

and staying there forever

It’s something about your shape

strong and stable

with just enough here

and not too much there

something to hug and to bump against

when words just won’t do

and which makes you look killer

in a pair of jeans 

and a backpack

and that sparkle in your eyes.

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2.12  Miscommunicate

Gloaming glaring catch

of language not delivered

like it was received

each skip a greater bump until

we’re sailing through intersections

barely missing each other

head on and all you can do

is clam up and look at me

as if I’m the one 

who has the problem here.

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2.13  Tremulo

Scissors’ snick

and shearing chill

though BTUs are high

this afternoon an early gift

from sky and sun remote

and I

am transformed from shell

to shell

as if godmother in her blue

and pink

waved it so

instead of planning and pondering

nights without sleep

and you next to me

making sounds you never 

make awake.

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2.14  Valentine

A Saint without a mantle

his own tossed aside

a conglomeration of hearts

and dried petals blown from

who knows everywhere

and this scrap of card leftover

the only thing to make him smile

as if greatest treasure found

in this rubbish heap

were not still out there

waiting on discovery

and an attempt at happiness

today

when I never did despair

another year.

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