parry

a lilliputian army of words
impossible to parry
a million tiny thrusts
made not with swords
but stick pins
an aggregation of wounds
minuscule enough
to barely draw blood
hardly worth notice
were I not about to swim
in a sea of salty tears

sidereal

stretching like taffy
this exigent epoch
flat on our backs
on a threadbare blanket
halfheartedly protecting us
from dewy ground
heavens above
marking sidereal time
not in seconds or heartbeats
but in the eternity between
when you reach for my hand
and when we touch

quorum

my senses take leave
on little vacations
I hope they're somewhere warm
basking in the sunshine by a pool
with frothy drinks and umbrellas
while Reason and I sit
in this empty conference room
lacking a quorum and dithering

auspicious

fireworks & sunshine
fireworks & moonshine
salt breeze on skin
first kisses, reminisces
lost in the newness
of whatever this is
yet, suspicious
of the auspicious
burned by hope before
a sunburn that blistered
no aloe could soothe
faded now but damage done
and leaving me checking
each mole and freckling in fear
so cautiously, so very cautiously
into daylight I reappear
to bask in you but warily
lest skin ablaze already
merely from your touch
be seared by your sun
your light, for me, too much

winnow

the wind whips by

bracing with bluster

you muster the strength 

for the next step

as frosty gusts winnow away

the decrepitude of neglect

clearing the accumulation

of grim grime decaying 

you in quick lime

a million false starts

start you stuttering

and stalling 

to creep slowly onward

rising and falling

to be purified 

by sweat and salt 

a light ahead 

beckons and dances

mirage

storybook houses
gingerbread kisses
picket fences
and swing sets
air shimmers
on the asphalt
and it's gone
radio turns on
to fill the vacuum
mirage of peace
melts away
uneasy we sing
broken lyrics
to a song we
never really knew

undulant

warm cheek
cool pillow
eyelash flutters
hair cascading
an undulant waterfall
reds and browns
swirl like finger-paint
as he tucks
a stray wisp
behind her ear
pulls her closer
stray whispers
sleepy grin
like the dawn
as she is lit
novae within

consummate

a cuddle when I'm cold
a kiss full of bliss
a kind word, tight hug
perfection just this

paragon of paramours
consummate confidant
quite simply, simple love
is all that I want

the words "i love you"
said sincerely
i'm still searching
i had it, nearly

propensity

my natural propensity
a tendency towards verbosity
i spew a thousand words
when just a few would do

my love for pen and paper
for keyboards clacks
summed up simply
is this:

i cannot backspace,
cross out, erase
the sounds my mouth makes
the embarrassment it creates
the havoc it wreaks
when too much, too soon
it speaks

my mouth lacks the subtlety
my fingers can find
my internal editor
slower than an exuberant tongue
trying to keep pace
with a frenzied mind

hie

whither and whence
and thither we go
hie ourselves hence
why? we don't know
the wind is our guide
the whole world our home
together to roam
never alone
high up the mountain
down in the sea
as long as you're there
that's where I'll be

farraginous

caught betwixt
head and heart
don't know
can't see
how to end
or where to
start deciphering
messages mixed
a farraginous melange
of maybes, of yeses,
of nevers and always,
of darlings and baby's,
of sorries and somedays
approach the clues
with empathy
not apathy
crossing divides
astride both sides
hindering my ability
to see with clarity
the line
at my feet
leading me
away
from you

nidifugous

half formed and unfledged
forced out into a world
for which we are unready
not flying but falling
down down downy soft
nidifugous and tender
lucky if we discover
how to land
without breaking
without someone else
breaking our fall

kismet

written in the stars
by Moerae spinning
we thread their needles
kismet in cross stitch
drawn out with fingertips
whispered and woven
embroidered in colors
chosen for us
by capricious old cacklers
to decorate a cosmic wall
hope like a blanket
hope like a kiss
tapestry of life hanging
lit by exploding suns
crackles and flames
tendrils of fire
like wisps escaping
from a tightly wound skein
a cinder flying
a wind divine
and we incinerate

epistemic

there's knowing
and knowing
ya know?
i never knew
how little i knew
until i met you.
my epistemic failings
systemic, impaling
myself on the railings
of wisdom prevailing
and once shown
how little i've known
how stupid i've been
how grand my chagrin
you buggered off again
increasing my dumb dumb dumbing
and i so witless, blind and naive
i never even saw it coming

morass

as easy as fallin'
down a well
well, easier in fact
to become trapped
sticky as molasses
this morass is
caught up
in the tangle
of the cat's cradle
lost in a labyrinth 
confused and unable
to make the right turn
the left turn
the u-turn
when it's your turn
to turn out
it turns out
that turn about
isn't the fairest play
after all
but leaves you stalled
stuck behind walls
the cage that you created
with ego inflated
will never leave you sated

obnubilate

brittle green ivy clings
to purple prose
like pollen heavy posies
scent drenched to
obnubilate sense and senses
like seeing the world through
scratched rose colored lenses
the street sweepers know
to be swept up
is to be tossed aside
in the rising tide
of righteous wrongness
all the same in the throng
yesterday's flowers
sickly sweet and rotting
get sent along
and only that
frosted glass bouquet
which shines with fakery
get plucked
and polished
and the rest
laid to rest
on the rubbish heap
of history

golem

with heavy tread
and made of clay
listening to voices in our head
golems driven by magic words
moneylovelustpowerfamilydutyloss
maneuvered by outside forces
and hasty choices
we amble, stumble,
try not to crumble
finding shape and form
in the phrases
that make and unmake us
to see where they take us
before we plasticine men
are modeled and molded
and mushed back together
at days end
tossed in the toy chest
until rainy day remembered again

verbatim

denials flow
tributaries to the sea
nuance lost
diffused in an ocean of
words words words
repeated verbatim
sans the same intonation
prove nothing
but that a mouth moved
and sounds made
hollow echoes
reverberate
against the cliffs
of an empty coast
as hard and treacherous
as a lover's farewell
his pirate ship
sailing into the horizon
leaving her marooned
hallooing to the heavens
and feeding the briny sea
with her tears

deter

so it is we're taught
by a world fraught with fighting
where shouting the loudest
by the dumbest and proudest
leaves us with messages mixed
surety wrong in self-righteousness
but you cannot deter the determined
those who make their will their own
will make their own way
those who seize the reins win the day
the intrepid are exalted
and when they fail still unfaulted

theriac

porcelain almost transparent 

refined hues of pinks and blues

in floral design delicate and cherished 

tiny fingers grasping 

attempting grace

as clatters against the saucer

slosh the magical potion

across from her whose smile

warms more than sweet, milky tea

this heady memory

a theriac summoned in these later days

on days of disappointments and longing 

all it takes is a little brew and a word or two 

to soothe and soften

though distance great

I wish teatime was shared more often

levigate

like water on stone
time washes over us
and smooths away
the rough, the jagged
levigating all the broken bits
until we shine again

palatable

this...

   how delicious
       that first kiss
           after some delay
               tentative but eager
                  a little shy after days away
                     the time apart more palatable
                  knowing the anticipation
              gives us this frisson 
           as you lean in
        and I lean in
    til there's only
...this

rankle

days collage overlap and obscure
but unglued uncommitted float above canvas
story of things unseen half seen remain to be seen
a scene
half smile cardigan whiskey whispers
pictures apart in gelato times spinning into
a dance and a dip in Madison Square
a trip in florid fluorescent shops forgetting
faces and places and leaving no traces
and the thing that rankles isn't the why but the how
not the ending but the rending
insouciance diminishing existence into scraps
blown away by the wind
until it never happened
blank canvas again

inflammable

season of tears now over
the plains after the rains
this heart as dry as drought
inflammable as tinder
awaits a lightening strike
to set the scene on fire
from here to the horizon
burn away the broken
prepare the fallow ground
so out of the ashes
new life may spring
thus, verdant and vibrant,
the world begins anew

babel

catch snippets in the confusion
a pummeling of pointy words
playing over the feedback
of a thousand lies spewed from
a mouth of crooked teeth
dancing around sounds framed by lips
that once were used for kissing
dismissing her with cliches
that she cannot hear as sirens ring
in her ears, the tinnitus of grief
and car horns, subway rumbles
and passersby; the death rattle
boosts the babel of a city summer day
and i see her tears and look away
ashamed for intruding
in the park bench drama
whispered frantically
beside me
as i stare at a jumble of words
on the page and try not to
remember

restaurateur

the silver polished until it shone
like moons reflecting tiny suns
of glowing candlelight
each plate and dish
each fork and spoon
laid out as with a t-square
crystal glasses clear
unlike the atmosphere
hazy with anticipation
no restaurateur could
take more care
but what does it matter
if in the kitchen
the food cools
and congeals
with waiting
on a dinner guest
who never comes

jettison

one day you wake to find them gone
their detritus departed too
the tenor of their laugh
the swirl in that tattoo
their constellation of freckles
the weight of their sigh
a birthmark shaped just like heart
and hidden on a thigh
the exact hue
of eyes once
so well memorized
now only known as...blue
jettisoned in memory
specifics of someone
who shared the superficial
but whose heart you never knew
opening a space for one
who memorizes you

zaftig

i am as i am
soft and curved
but i spent my youth
in loathing absurd
pictures on paper
lied about beauty
lied about health
told me my duty
was to be perfect
was to thin
whatever the cost
for that's how you win
yet with age came wisdom
and self acceptance
now beauty is joy
and lacking all pretense
and someone whose arm
likes the swell of my hips
the light in my eyes
as he kisses my lips
i'm his zaftig Titian
i'm his curvy Red
beloved and smiling
and happily fed

camaraderie

our history in this harbor
a bridge across deep water
camaraderie carries us along
the majestic arc of time
and spans the distance
from me to you
built to last, our present, our past,
but painted with the petty patina
oxidized by years and slights
tears and fights
the tarnish of ten thousand days
which left unchecked
can rust and rend us
a little upkeep required to keep up
the infrastructure of us
polished with compassion
in a moment of communion
tiny tasks all it takes
to keep decay at bay

somnolent

careening wildly
we smash and grab
looting our dreams
by blasting blaring
screaming shouting shaking
to change us upon waking
sleeping minds rebel
against sleepwalking lives
too easy in somnolent torpor to trudge
retreating in redundancy for safety
daily grinding
then grinding teeth by night
in dreams we fight the plight
the day job doldrums rewrit
into adventures rich and rare
bold and brave we crave
heroism to hang about us
like a cape
which flaps behind us
as we fly
into a subconscious rising
infusing and apprising us
when all is bleak that
the courage we seek
the havoc we wreak
the valleys and peaks
are within us
WAKE UP
WAKE UP
THE TIME IS NOW
arise and find you there

a cappella

without accompaniment I swerve askew off key
the melody distort in an a cappella aria
yet sweetly I can sing with some small support
so for many others too
alone creating dissonance daily
sharp and flat in cacophony
jangle out of tune, discordant in tone
hearing naught but anthems they themselves have writ
as each strain strains above the din
still some sing true and find their melody alone
making jazz above a sea of jumbled notes
not me, I have not the skill or wit to scat so
I am but a small voice piping in emptiness
searching for a band with whom I find harmony
so we may swell our song together
and write a symphony in sympathy forever