orientate

crowds of people
stretched out on a sward
of grass in the park
like flowers lined up
in the rows of a bed
we orientate our heads
towards the sun
and rejoice in the respite
and recharge our vitamin D
after the winter's grey
begins its slow fade
into summer's searing heat

lethargic

struggling upward
swimming through sludge
towards wakefulness
enveloped in the
lethargic blanket
of rain pattering
against the windows
and the distant rumble
of the city rising
before curling back
into the curve
of a shoulder's crook
and surrendering again
to Sunday morning sighs

slough

like babes newborn
skin raw and delicate
we scream
the new sensation
of air upon skin
a revelation
each breath
a wonder
freedom from
the cloud
we'd been living under
we sloughed off
our cycniscm
when we found
each other
now brave
a new world
together

junket

carrion birds clustered
around fresh carcass
could not
with greater gusto
rend tender flesh
than the murder
of crowing crowds
on jeering junket
digesting the distress
of prior pedestal possessor
plummeting down
to join them
on the ground

upbraid

howls of recrimination
fall on deaf ears
none can upbraid
while concerns constantly
downgraded
dismissed and mansplained
with every refrain
always made a little lesser
unable to confess her fear
that she'll never get out of here

hummock

like grubby barefoot children
gathered eagerly
around a hummock
imagining a burial mound
for a rich and ancient king
enchanted to one day rise again
so we spin tales of grandeur
for the lumpen earth before us
making holy ground of the land
upon which we stand

ambiguous

I cannot ask the question
not knowing
how to frame it
not knowing
what appropriate
not knowing
why I cannot intuit
the answer
we swim
in waters ambiguous
and I cannot
see the bottom
I cannot
see the land
I cannot
see my hand
below the surface
I only know
that I know nothing
and also I know this
the answers that I seek
found no longer in your kiss

factoid

years of education

math and science, history

and still the things

that I remember

useless are, mostly

I've filled my head 

with factoids

random bits of trivia

lyrics of old pop songs

similar ephemera

but once each week

down at the pub

the silly things 

come good

when with my team

likewise inclined

we win our beer and food

cartographer

survey and measure
best we can
but still beyond our ken
the landscape of the heart
of the ones we thought to know
careful cartographer
though we be
still there is the sea
where all we can write is
There dragons be

bucolic

on a morning such as this
when the subway stalls
and two hours leaves you standing
when city life in general
just seems much too much demanding
i lean against the metal pole
and envy those with seats
and dream of life bucolic
far away from urban streets
replacing sirens with whip-poor-wills
and jostling crowds with daffodils
musings sweet but temporary
when mass transit acts contrary

eighty-six

it's time again to face the list
and find the ones to eighty-six
the ranters always rude and riled
with every conversation defiled
by constant bile and invective
who balk at any other perspective
since life's too short to be diminished
with jerks I'm done, kaput, and finished

tatterdemalion

out of season / out of time
the ramshackle carnival ruins
tell millions of tales
in faded sideshow peeling posters
proclaiming forgotten wonders
nature's miracles or blunders
fossilized candy-apple conjuring
imagined cavities & lost crowns
the mystical majesties who
slipped between the cracks
of a broken bottle ring toss
guarded by teddy bear prizes
w/ surprised eyes & moldering middles
the tatterdemalion dreams
of misty-minded misfits
bent on mischief & magic
prowling their decrepit
and holy surroundings
in the whispering echos
of the brash barker's cries
the ghosts around them rise

grimalkin

even in her dotage
regal like a queen
her rocking chair a throne
like her grimalkin
she preens and purrs
her pace diminished
but not her grace
through slitted eyes
she watches all
verbal barbs now her claws
her smile reminiscent of
the cat that got the cream

reciprocate

i've never understood
wherein lies the fault
do i ever choose wrong
or is it me that don't belong
i open up my soul
to those who seem so keen
but then they don't reciprocate
and so I demean myself
ingloriously prostrate
the doormat of doormats
in front of an entrance
i, myself, can never
pass through

interminable

moments stretched
like taffy sweet
but patience thinning
in the interminable break
between the question
and the answer
the Pinteresque pause
between each clause
as we wait
for someone else
to determine
our fate

pittance

they steal your time and dignity
and pay you but a pittance
they treat you like a prisoner
when you leave they say good riddance
they never know the secrets
that burn within your soul
they lack imagination
they never will be whole
the grub for fame or money
they value nothing worth
they leave behind no imprint
on the dry and dusty earth
but you make monoliths
you sing and paint and draw
you love and laugh and leave
the world better than before
so don't get too discouraged
don't give up without a fight
survive the best you can
until you set the world alight

magnanimous

crumpled and rumpled and worn
like a love letter faded
by a million fingertip caresses
sent through the wash
and hung up to dry
my heart creased
folded and reopened
and folded again
in the origami of hope
making swans or pandas
or roses for those others
as practice and pray
I don't tear beyond repair
whilst whiling away the time
waiting for one
magnanimous and kind
with whom I'll fold into
fabulous fantastical shapes
intertwined

napery

lay it all upon the table
an autopsy over dinner
spilling blood
on snow white napery
we disect the collection
of fleshed out memory
peppering the spleen
salting and assaulting
the heart of who
we used to be
before we became
cannibals devouring
ourselves

snaffle

and so it was
heart and hope
snaffled by a
charming fella
who left naught
but the memory
of a smile
and a suitcase
full of tears

livelong

to my bed
the livelong day
consigned to rest
by infirmity
the ache interminable
can't even toss and turn
for fear the piercing pain
to return

widdershins

we spin
anticlockwise to the world
in whirling widdershins
dreaming we're seeming
to age in reverse
for better or worse
we dissolve
like a cartoon flashback
into the ones
we once were
whenever we're together
our regression
is sure
to occur

hyperbole

in language's jungle
becoming entangled
swinging through
rhetorical trees
on vines made
of hyperbole
flung to great heights
the greatest, most grand
and never mind
quite where we land
you Tarzan, me Jane
ever the same

alow

the sun goes down to earth 

and 'gainst the velvet black 

a darker shadow falls 

alow are empty berths 

all up on the deck 

to see behemoth rise

the creaking wood 

the only song 

concordant with the waves

as terror takes us

into the suffocating abyss 

flack

gaping jaw unhinged, distended
he flacked past consequence intended
explaining to the somber dead
excuses big to match his head
he never meant... it's not his fault
the world to burn, the earth to salt
he just thought it would be fun
to fly around in Air Force One

cloying

a hot air balloon boosted by the fanfaronade
of febrile fandom, of breathy nothings
not sweet so much as saccharine cloying
and though I rose to dizzying heights of affection
in a basket of charming description
it was frangible;
woven of straw by a straw man
who flipped and tipped me out
so I lost the loft
and from basket fell
as it seemed
consigned to hell
but from dejected detrusion
I rose again to climb
this time aided by one
less demonstrative than some
but whose words, though rare
were not ephemeral as air
but rock solid to stand upon
and if this time the mountain's peak I attain
I will know love real
and not another legerdemain

defile

all my hopes
muster and march
towards one
who may command
as he please

send them defiling across a chasm
to leap like lemmings into an abyss

wash his hands of them
choosing dereliction
against my conscription


he may send them back to me
fed and fighting fit

or like flag corp in formation
to telegraph intention
he may order them in celebration
with brass band show admiration

ending my fear of devastation
as I wait like wary war bride
for telegraph and chaplain
or the sure and steady stride
of the hopes
who into battle went

gimcrack

crackerjack trinkets
situated on the shelf
but in their midst
a bit of one who left
naught of himself
he left a gimcrack
shiny and distracting
in hopes of counteracting
the damage he inflicted on
the Hummel figurines
the Tiffany lamps 
the Faberge eggs of joy
he smashed them
and replaced them
with a broken toy

brachiate

dancing in the canopy with agility and stealth
she brachiates from thought to thought
swinging speedily above pedestrian minds
as her charges swing above pedestrian souls
she flies through intellect's skies
and some applaud her genius
and some laud her patience
and some throw rocks
to bring her down
to feast upon her works
discount the facts she's found
they would destroy the knowledge
she attained without them
destroy the refuge she made
for the family they refuse to recognize
or destroy the world they do not understand
only excepting and accepting the world of Man

ignoble

time's poultice
left to do its job
has healed
understanding
grown like medicine
on moldy bread
and ignoble though
my reason was
I see now it was not
wrong per se
but not right either
for you did not lie
when you said you never lied
but omitted the truth
that your truths
were conditional
situational and not steadfast
and like your love
were not made to last

vaticination

technicolor trails
form pictures
like cream in coffee
to cut the bitterness
clouds of maybes
dissipate to dark
the vaticination of
tomorrows divined
in the ordinary
clink of spoon
on ceramics
as you make me
breakfast in bed