importune

every fear will manifest
at anxiety's behest
to trust in joy precarious
and doubt doubly nefarious
so every thought will importune
disaster to be coming soon
and transform possibility
into a dreadful certainty

phalanx

a phalanx of fears
amasses in your head
with every word said,
or worse, left unsaid
comes a quiet dread
right before the tears

addlepated

give me perfect imperfection
the messy messes
that share in my excesses
and so together bless the
beguiling beginnings
before the bridges burning
when still open every turning
and yet they turn towards me
to take my hand in theirs
and lead my addlepated mind
out from distress to find
something like progress

evince

that Faith takes form invisible 

and flies about the room

a discombobulated moth

fluttering towards flame

evinces the truth that we

are but the space where 

angels fallen wingless rise

to walk again with eyes

firmly fixed upon the skies

bildungsroman

at the end of time
I hope we find
we are, all of us,
a library that lent our tomes
to those who’d read them
and deep within the stacks,
the bildungsroman
of how we grew
into all we knew

motley

upon the shelf
arrayed like treasure
the trinkets of a little life
a motley assortment
valued more than measure
a rock from a far off land
a paper crane made by his hand
and in the center stands
a picture of him that’s gone
a shrine to one beyond

undergird

beware the rust and rot 
that creeps at snail pace 
to rob you of your joyful span 
to eat away your charming grace 
the structure of your thought 
the contours of your lovely face 
to make you lesser than
the most common commonplace
and fight what Time has wrought
so undergird your base
resolve yourself and make a plan
for just this kind of case
persevere, don't be distraught

hapless

i fall from grace
right on my ass
with hapless charm
nonetheless
and then obsess
on former perch
prestige and pants
besmirched

desideratum

our secret selves
divided into precincts
and behind the thickest door
hid behind a bookcase
our dearest desideratum
that we dare not say aloud
lest the saying jinx

whinge

weather wears away
civilization's veneer
eroding politeness like
storm surge beaches
so i whinge as i wait
on the crowded platform
for an overcrowded train
and i cringe as the hair
of a stranger brushes
inadvertently against
my clammy skin
making me entertain
vengeance scissor dreams

redaction

at the start of the new
I could wish my past
were told but
with redactions
wipe out
my overreactions
my greater infractions
and yet my mouth
will run beyond my sense
I hope that honesty
serves as my defense
and love my recompense

cogent

summer swelters
saps sense
cogent thought
melts to milkshakes
in the sun from
ice cream dreams

gnomic

voluble youth
taught silence
words are weapons
that cannot cut
if not said aloud
by vocalization
with power endowed
from minx to sphinx
she cloaks her mind
in gnomic mystery
taught she ought
to guard her thought
by history

speculate

motivations mystify
                i hardly know my own
  i dare not speculate
                             on what cogs spin
       and set in motion
                           the minds of others
        tis easy to guess
  impossible to know
   
a parlor game
set by Sartre
     to whittle away the void
               waiting for Beckett's Godot


          while over in the corner armchair
              de Beauvoir smiles just so

provender

shuffle up
to the trough
shovel in
precious provender
of prevarication
like gluttons at a feast
fodder fed
and easily led
sheeple full up
with processed fries
and tyrant's lies

auxiliary

iron mesh lattices mask the empty
window glassy eyes locked behind
call to mind the trench men
they throw grenades and shade
who name the auxiliary corp cowards
forgetting the seconds fare no better than firsts
and sometimes catch the worst
they dug the holes seven feet down
an extra foot for good measure
to water the grave where grace will die
if not you and I

nosegay

no matter
how you hold
the nosegay up
you cannot mask
the putrescence
of hope's
bloated corpse

embezzle

Time, that old thief,
sinks his teeth in
in assorted schemes.
Sometimes, some time
he outright steals -
bold as brass and
twice as daring, but
from others he
underhand embezzles
in slow and steady
drips and drabs
quietly amassing
a fortune of memories.

torrid

the crisp white sheets
envelop her fragile form
her pallid hand outstretched
across the effervescent divide
of the now
to grasp fondly from
the torrid days of
a long past summer
when the blood ran hot
the hand of one
she hid in memory
to welcome her home

dearth

burdened by the bustle
by the struggle, by the hustle
by the ever aching blindness
from a dearth of human kindness
vaguely longing for a smile
from the face across the aisle
from the other subway seat
yet instead we stare at feet
as the subway stops roll past
we listen to a podcast
or scroll our phones or look
unseeing at the pages of a book
seeking comfort in the worlds therein
and not the uncertain one we're in

ostentatious

oh, go and write your book then
your ostensible conscience you can no more reconcile
so in your apologia you'll propitiate and attempt to negate
the outcome of your appeasement to the vile,
ostentatious popinjay parroting the patriotic display
and all the while profiting from democracy's demolition
oh, go and sell your snake oil as contrition
pretend your sins were simply of omission
and not lining your pockets by permitting sedition

 

lionize

Beware the pedestal, my love,
for them that raise you up
will cheer your fall.
They'll lionize you
until they find a lion's pride
does not suit their sense,
then euthanize the beast
before they can become your prey.
They think not of tomorrow.
They barely see today.

flair

i may not be
the prettiest
certainly not
the most demure
my grace marred
by constant stumbles
my face wrinkled
by tears and smiles
and though i may
often fumble
though i slouch
and sailor swear
and laugh too loud
and scream and shout
i have a certain quirky flair
that refinement
knows nothing about

metathesis

opposites attract
our chemicals react
no more you and me
we two become compact

in metathesis find
the two of us combined
now we from youandme
a new entity designed

churlish

a kindness offered
a hope renewed
but brief, too brief
when in such
churlish fashion
the tenderness
abruptly withdrawn
and the receiver
of both ignorant
of the everlasting
why

planet

what if we
are no more
to the planet
than the microbes
on our skin
are to us
they can kill us
true
as we can kill
this earth
and yet
unless in distress
we regard it
but little
so does the world
work its thoughts
towards us
in geologic time

inkhorn

the saloon pontificate
is poping up his stool
with inkhorn phraseology
and a big old hat
sermonizing forth like
the Second Coming
is coming up soon and
latinate lexicology
will somehow save him
from the whiskey regret
poured out in front of him
as the bartender Pontius
washes his hands
and wipes down the bar

girandole

he loved her
and in her eyes
the starburst
flecks of gold
within the amber
he loved her skin
the girandole
of her freckles
in constellations
across her cheek
her loved her smile
the supernova of
her giddy joy
shining back at him
in her he found
a universe writ small
and his expanded

sedulous

when we were young
time seemed an ocean
spread before us in
infinitecomplexity
and we, minuscule
before it
dwarfed by expanse
but as we grow
time stays the same
or seems to shrink
within our sedulous study
and our youth appears as
an ant before a puddle
distant below in our giants view
and the ocean we once saw
evaporates into adieu

burgeon

take the shit
that life will pile on
disappointments
delays and dead ends
and render them again
composted with
new hope and love
and longing and
therein plant a seed
to someday soon
burgeon forth
and bloom

afflatus

if energy
cannot be
created or destroyed
is each neuron firing
a recycled remnant
of some long ago
explosion
or implosion
and thus
is the afflatus
of genius
nothing more
than the detritus
of a thought
someone else
forgot