buttress

former selves
remembered
in broken flashes
glitch and glare
intrude into today
recollect a tower of hair
a corset tight and skirts
with more buttresses
than cathedrals boast
and these hardly the worst
dragged pillar to post
at the whim of the ghost
of the patriarchy still
or some church's will
tear away the yesterday
freedom fought to find
a better world where
our children's children
leave this farce behind

Elysian

mundanity
cakes upon
day to day
like makeup
upon a pageant
till fresh faced
holiday arrives
in Elysian dreams
beautiful and brief
lingering like
the scent of summer
whispering on
the autumn air

hegemony

every time turns
that’s its nature
it erodes or explodes
the hegemony halts
and empire falters
to be eulogized
or forgot and what
remains compressed
into diamond or
falls to rot

cleave

history sings
with subtle swings
of the ax

the guillotine's
soft swoosh
before the crash

that cleaves
betwixt the vertebrae

executioner as dj

you'll dance a jig
after the pop
when the hangman
hits the rig
and thereafter
your bass
will drop

frowsy

forgo my frowsy
weekend wear.
paint my nails.
do up my hair.
put on a dress.
I can't be late
miracle of miracles
a date

lèse-majesté

insouciance
worn like a badge
to brag about
triumphantly
lèse-majesté
after lèse-majesté
until normality
is worn away
eroded by brazen
effrontery and
transparent trickery
the emperor nude
we ourselves delude
 

axiomatic

for granted taken
so much, so oft,
so might all be taken
so quick and poof
gone gone gone
the axiomatic
a comfortable quiet
a dangerous gamble
when a few words
could retain what
silence would disdain

suffuse

a dusky rose
blooms in the sun
softly suffused
on dewy skin
the gentle flush
the heady rush
a kiss of summer
sweetest bliss

detritus

tosher in the tunnels
picker in the piles
digger in the detritus
of a thousand shipwrecks
crashed upon the shores
of shallow shoals
to finish with the first
unbroken heart

redoubtable

I remember him fondly
redoubtable yet rough
beyond compare
within his sphere
but elsewhere not enough
or far too much
uneven keel
but heart of gold
iron will
mind of steel

misprision

the only wall they've built
on ever shifting sands
is one between the public
and the public trust
selling off the public lands
infrastructure left to rot and rust
economy primed for boom then bust
and above it all one
insatiable in his lust for power
his misdeeds mounting hour by hour
and misprision made by force or fiat
as his henchmen face the wall
made to separate and conceal
his pride precedes our fall

issuable

the cause
for past absence,
prolonged as pulled taffy and
stretched across the span of time
in infinite seconds seeming,
is issuable perhaps
but the result incontestable -
and though your inconstancy
may leave me inconsolable
my comfort is this:
though your heart has shriveled
mine persists
and yet may love again
while you fall past redemption

bivouac

in the roots
of uprooted trees
beneath broad palm leaves
Despair bivouacs
waiting for water to subside
ready to stride out
and shove terror aside
as grim duties await
grave foundations
for a new world

labile

we deceive ourselves
about impermanence
pretending that
life isn't as labile
as a soap bubble
floating towards
a field of saw grass

Yooper

the greatest lakes
immune to rakes
the falling leaves
end summer reprieves
now comes the snow
twenty five below
with wolves in packs
across the Mackinacs
this Yooper home
they roam

continual

this thing we have surprises
continual joy arises
every time you so smile
and I, for once, less cynical
less prone to autopsy clinical
your every word and look
I may yet be caught out
reverting back to doubt
but I already wrote that book
rather than read and repeat
I task myself no mean feat
to revel in this perfect while
as smile, look, and book beguile

travail

i would have sat with gnarled hands
to weave and will a world in cloth
or bent my back to pick and prune
in ages past my eyes
would ache from baking rays
or sputtering flames
in ages yet to come
who knows if
we'll even exist
but in this one
my travails to this desk are tied
where joy and hope have died

abscond

shadow-clad
he creeps
in the flicker
past perception
and absconds
with discretion
beyond your
souls' reflection
second cousin of Death
daemon-god of selfies
surreptitious and stealthy
you cannot catch his eye
narcissists aren't sly

deleterious

an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY
an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY
an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY

  
I have been told
            is deleterious
            to one's health
            
so

great
      now I get to be anxious
                     about
                     the effects
                     of anxiety
                     on anxiety

double helix gets the best of me

an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY
an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY
an     AN
   xi        XI
      ety      ETY

repertoire

a few sad songs
plinked and plunked
upon the keys
are all these hands
can offer still
but it matters not
the breadth of skill
how catchy my cache
my repertoire is small
but so is my audience
I play for the delight
of none but one

pell-mell

a life cobbled
has left me winded
and winding off
perceived paths
prepared pell-mell
for heaven or hell
i make my way
as best i can
for the better part
of a life's span

olfactory

memories activate as
the olfactory switch flipped
and present as today
he returns in a miasma
of cherry pipe tobacco
though gone these thirty years
and his voice eludes me
though it whispers sourpuss
but in the wafting wave
of a passing stranger
his smile shines again

bas-relief

in dark of night
my eyes
like eager fingers
trace the bas-relief
sculpture of your
profile in pillow
half sunk and
swoonily I sigh
heart full back
to sweetest slumber

germane

they knew what he was
they knew and yet
they let him through
privilege speaks to privilege
and builds a house of cards
upon which injustice stands
supremacy not meritocracy
they found the facts irrelevant
a fact we’ll find germane
when at the ballot box
we check a different name

skulk

shine bright
beam of hope
like lighthouse lit
through darkest night
doubt skulks in the corners
scuttling many legged
skittering for cover
to hide away
and rise unbidden
another day

adscititious

unwavering heart cares not
about adscititious merits of mind
they are taken not for granted
but are not how love’s defined

minim

the dead see
scrolls
scrolls
scrolls
as the world unfolds
grant me grace
a minim
of sweet sublime
as your hand
hovers over mine
and in this
gentle reprieve
my thumb stop
my eyes relieve
my feed finish
sleeping walking beauty
woken by your kiss

fecund

the scoliosis of atlas 

world weighted and wary 

gnarled and bent 

roots grasping 

like arthritic fingers 

bleached by heat age 

and sun parched earth 

south sweat salt 

painting ochre 

or burnt sienna 

waiting for the sky 

to cry but stoic 

remain dry and dusty 

as her child below 

squalling for 

the fecund days 

of myth and memory 

when demon dunes

were rolling hills 

and the desert 

was the sea

extemporize

caught out
caught in a moment
fumbling furiously
I extemporize
and pray the truth
shines through the lies
and that my love
shines in your eyes
as I feign indifference
through sighs

calliope

play upon my heart
in carnival song
calliope ringing
join in the joy
and rise up singing
a plinking perfection
delicious confection
confetti strewn love
that serenades
the passerby
this symphony of two
you and I