shindig

cuddled under blankets
we dream

of spring
of bees and dragonfly cotillions
a swanky shindig on gossamer wings
debutantes waltzing the warming of days
the summer a promise of winter memory

we dream
cuddled under blankets

penultimate

time is a knife
we balance
on its edge
a tightrope walk
on a sharpened ledge
over a precipice
while blood drips
from the incisions
in our tattered feet
lacerated toes grip
lest from time
we slip
we dare not
lose our grasp
until with our
penultimate gasp
we sigh relief
let go and fall
and where
or if
we land
well,
that's anybody's call

gallivant

take your chances
when they come
gallivant across the globe
dance badly in your bathrobe
jump into the pile of leaves
roll up your sleeves
splash in puddles
swim the seas
tomorrow has no guarantees
but today is not yet done
the thing you fear
may never come to pass
sadness happens
but need not last
joy persists
love insists

impervious

my shield
and armor
a glow within
I become
impervious
to the whims
of the moods
of all but me
joy has set me free

punctilio

the indrawn breath
held and released
to steady hands
steeped in tradition
teatime punctilio
precision required
for the perfect pour

whipsaw

as the new year approaches:

beware of being whipsawed
by conflicting advice

remember worry means
you live catastrophe twice

but plan for eventualities
just don't get caught up in banalities

if I could manage the one without the other
that would be nice

evergreen

beyond shadow
phantasm clouds
rumble in the distance
the evergreen truth
grown from the sands
like desert flowers
too brief and beautiful
tended by the winds
future blown by
hope buoyant breezes
to scatter seed
far from fallow ground
to grow in other climes

luminaria

for once I know
my path lit
as if by luminaria
the lovely glow
leading me towards
a new year
of joy and hope

discriminate

it can be hard sometimes
to discriminate between
that which is good
and that which feels good
they are not identical
but blur your vision
and so sometimes
you make the wrong decision
thank god for second chances
and wisdom in revision

fulgent

resplendent in
her fulgent raiment
a gown of gold
and light and sparkle
that stretches from
the bottom branch
to the tippety top of the tree
she sits above it all and
watches your wonder
for a month or under before
you box her up again
to wait until next winter

kowtow

the ones who
destroy their legacy
eradicating history
to kowtow to indecency
for the sake of expediency
will be disappointed by
the inconstancy of trust
in their continued hypocrisy
and the eventual outcome
of democracy

xenophobia

brick by brick
you built a wall
to make yourself feel safe
you built it very tall

you built it very tall
until you blocked out the sun
to make yourself feel safe
you built it so it holds just one

the bricks were made
of clay and xenophobia
the bricks that built
your personal dystopia

and in your darkness
you finally realized
you'd built a well not a wall
with your bricks of fear and lies

now you are at the bottom
and though you can't see the sky
you can hear the rain
the walls thunder seems to amplify

the water level rises
so you better hope you float
you thought you'd build a wall
but you'd have been better with a moat

haggard

he wears
the weight
of a thousand cares
a thousand fears
a thousand tears
a thousand years
haggard and worn
he walks the world
never dying
always trying
to atone

aught

too much to learn
too little known
i know a lot
but still so much
i don't know

and nor do you
we do the best we can
but for aught that i can tell
know-it-all's don't do so well

more important than
facts and figures
(we can find those if we try)
is to have imagination enough
for empathy to grow

flibbertigibbet

giddy girl in bows
heart upon her sleeve
sings and dances in her chair
cares about pop culture
builds castles in the air
those uninformed may judge
her a flibbertigibbet
confusing jollity for frivolity
but seriousness of purpose
need not dress dour
and those who so presume
ignore her power
at their peril 

mellifluous

chanteuse persuade by chanson serenade

mellifluous drippings like sap tapped tree

trickle from mouth to drown the hall

subsume us all in siren song and

we surrender to the sweet elixir

transfixed and beguiled

in the note
raw and wild

emanating from
most delicate throat

proselytizing verse

in both blessing and curse

delectation

delight alights
like a flighty bird
mid migration
to offer you
the delectation
of whimsy met
with outright joy
in a moment of pure bliss
a kiss from a happy dog
a sigh from a lover’s lips
a purr from a kittenface
a call from a far off friend
a smile from a passing child
a hug from a parent
a random compliment
a million little things
that bring content

impugn

st joan was martyred thus
the old and powered
would have devoured her
demeaned her and debased
how dare those who never
cared for anything
beyond self interest
and narcissistic glory
impugn the motives
of one so young
who champions
the cause of so many
and speaks for those
who cannot speak to angels

tractable

credulous suckers
seething with rage
stoked by children
they threw in a cage

how tractable the masses
led by braying asses
who equate Other with Lesser
how sadly few
the second-guessers
those with an eye to history
would do well to wary be

not convince themselves
that time will some day forgive
the harm they make while they live
pretending they serve a greater good
for underneath every hood
a head who claims a cause

but unless empathy resurgent be
we'll all be crushed in the jaws
of cruel and corrupted laws
and mourning what was

belle epoque

both dressed up in grandest gown  
leaping up and dancing down
the Rue de Rivoli in gayest revelry
a belle epoque for you and me 
saying yes we can can-can
to every sir and ma'am-ma'am

sodden

is there a sadder sound
than squish of sodden sock
inside of boot as slush seeps in
sole and soul weeps in winter
rubber seals broken or cracked
too sad to go on
too far to go back

reiterate

fuck your thoughts and prayers
fuck your it's too soons
how many fucking moons
must pass before you get up
off your ass and make a change
a school is not a firing range
yes indeed a knife is bad
but worse, far worse, the easy gun
that abbreviates the chance they had
to run, the arguments that are won
by shot exacerbate destruction wrought
as we reiterate the same sentiment
again again again again again again
and ceaselessly are left to mourn
and beg those who make the laws
to address the overt cause and
not just doling out of blame
and bating those who judge
their hypocrisy while profiting off
their name and NRA rating

oxymoron

she holds within her
more dichotomies
than you can fathom
a walking oxymoron
a die hard dillettante
a casual zealot
she'll spin your head
and trip your tongue
and make you bow
and blush
and for this
flustered flush
you'll love her
all the more
you'll hate her too
before you're through
but never quite enough
to go back to before

circumscribe

we are old dogs
learning new tricks
determined to decide
for ourselves what
we may achieve
and refusing to believe
our future is by our past
forever circumscribed

vexillology

above a tattered fort
a ragged scrap
upon which scrawled
a drawing indiscernible
no learned vexillology
may parse its meaning
but to a few it declares
the freedom of youth
in the summer days
before the school bells chime
a childhood shrine

gingerly

if one possesses an abundance of hope
it is best to make your approach gingerly
the belly freely given may oft deceive
floofy bait to draw in an unwary hand
tranquility's duration just three scritches
before the gaping jaws of death brand you
with the stamp of the gullible betrayed

acquiesce

he held me down
and I confess
I did no more
than acquiesce
I thought
if I fought
I would die
so why would I

coup de grâce

some monsters
seem immune
no sword sharp enough
to deliver the coup de grâce
to slay the wild beast
with forked tongue
spewing fire and fury
where swords may fail
words may win and so
we whisper and wish

ersatz

so many today
live an office life
stuck with an ersatz
office husband or wife
and wonder at the strife
condemned to spend
all their time aligned
with the one that HR chose
and not the one
who shared their vows
no surprise then at the rows

bon vivant

wit sparkling
like champagne
bubbles rising
a bon vivant
in a sequin dream

pointillistic

viewed up close
it’s all a mess
a confusion of color
in glorious disarray
but from a distance
the picture clear
so we stipple the days
in pointillistic precision
to make a life

incognito

the caterpillar
is nature’s spy:
incognito
butterfly.

mutt

a broken heart has room

for waifs and strays

where every mangy mutt 

will finally have its day

in all of us resides

a vulnerable part

we are all the same

in our broken heart 

comestible

a patchwork quilt
of comestible delight
turkey on your left
mashed potato on your right

fawn

as a pup
licking lotion
off a bared leg
hopes the bearer
will fumble and
let fall a fry

so I fawn over you
five second rule the crumbs of your affection
unwilling to let the minutest selection go to waste
I savor every morsel's taste

retinue

some are born
for the crown
the adulation of strangers
never gets them down

in them always sings
the divine right of kings

but that isn't me
and that isn't you
we were born
for the retinue

sempiternal

never did I think
a simple day
could create
such an ache
that one touch
could ease
sempiternal truth
that the heart
is not one organ
but it inexorably
ties to all
to skin and
every sense
endlessly

billingsgate

he loved her wild ways
the glorious contradiction
of her refined form
and swaggering gait
the arms swinging
in a broad arc as
from her delicate mouth
pours forth billingsgate
that would make
a dockworker blush
the textures of her
silk and burlap soul
set his linen heart aflame

jilt

never have you seen
such an affronted face

you’d think
she was a lover
being jilted
for another
when you grab
your keys
but no leash

heterodox

It turns out 
for years 
I confused anxiety 
with butterflies.

All the ones
I thought
gave me flutters
gave me ulcers.

Movies taught me 
love was fraught.

But this 
heterodox delight,
this soft kiss and sigh
alighting on upturned lips,
I feel not in my stomach
but in my chest and hips
as I lean against 
your sturdy form and
make a pillow of your arm.

fortitude

there are days
when I should
have listened to
my intuition
to stay curled up
head upon a cushion
squeezed into a little ball
cat curled too in the crook
of my bended knees
warm and comfy
as you please
and yet I summoned
all my fortitude
and rise to fall
and wonder why
I rose at all
tomorrow is
another day
and maybe it will
go another way

expedite

I know I have not
savored enough
the good too oft
expedited with
the bad as I rush
to get to the next bit
where of course
joy alone must reign
better to accept them both
for what they are
the now is all we
are granted for certain

recondite

deep below an ocean
made of all the tears
shed and ever to be shed
an eyeless fish sinuous
swims the sandy bottom
of our psyche in solitary
esses searching for
recondite treasures
to feed a piscine heart
with hope

mot juste

i see you
in your grief
the aching
open wound
that rends you
in two
and would offer
some relief
were there any
to be found
but in my search
for le mot juste
all the words
for woe fall flat
and so i mutter
"this fucking blows"
and though it's pat
it'll do
at least not trite
and sadly true

carouse

in my youth
I would imbibe
with the best of them
I could indeed
carouse just
like the rest of them
but my vintage now
well aged I sip instead
to warm my heart
but save my head

officious

the reward for a quiet attempt
by a quick mind to forestall
waste is to be deemed
pedantic and officious
by those who care
to claim that they
have listened
but who rather than learn
yearn to be seen
doing a thing rather than
doing the thing that’s seen

white elephant

cautious care and kindness
becoming a white elephant
hung about ones neck
to choke when disregard
the gift given in return
and guilt the gilt returned
on investment unearned

incongruous

like laughter at a funeral
the incongruous spark
spontaneous most beautiful
founded in sentiment
of joy or hope or kindness
it startles us to remind us
of the wonder that wakes
the divinity of creativity

gambit

i have no mind for strategy
other's motivations leave me
befuddled beyond belief
my opening gambit
also my mate checked
expecting kindness
and respect from those
who seek a different end
so a smaller game instead
this little corner of
the board with you
against the world defend

bruit

the cubicles stand in
not for offices
but lockers
and the insidious stank
of high school repression
of mean girl succession
of jocks jostling for position
and me in the corner
no more grunge but still sulking
as gossip bruited about
the break room worse
than any cafeteria
I end my days weary
and yet wearier

armistice

sent across a sea
to defend
against the tyranny
of ancient men
who make decisions
and divisions
look across the lines
to find
in other eyes
more in kind
than them
what sent them there
see the same
ache and despair
and kindness and hope
a Christmas armistice
tied with twine and rope
wrapped with a bow
for a song or two
in sweet tableau
before the brass
turns the screw
before the gas
begins again
before the guns
are manned
before the bullets
start to rain
once more
in no man's land

teleological

having none
I cannot be sure
but I do not think
it merely hypothetical
that a baby’s cuteness
is partly teleological
else how
a want wider than ocean
the abyss of need
the constant burp
and change and feed
sparks such deep devotion
but that they do
is indisputable
and it is beautiful

aphorism

simple truth
lost in time
so many words
bandied about
from everywhere
our minds
bombarded by
constant conversation
we’ve forgot
the aphorism
of brevity and wit
in every
long winded bit

lyric

thread invisible
quilts together
the hemispheres
in grand design
the lyric heart
and prosaic mind

espouse

I am gone already
my soul has flown
in the click
of the mouse
imagination
has peopled
a house on a hill
and there would I
espouse the proposition
that a smaller life
can be fuller that I
city bred can transition
to a quiet mind and
in the tap tap tap
upon a keyboard
build a world greater
that the metropolis
I left and were you
there too my cleft heart
made whole again
my universe
shrunk\expanded

chillblain

take for granted
winters worst
wrapped in wool
warmed with little packs
of chemicals pretending that
the colds are not colder
than the winter before
we stave off the chillblains
the our children will endure
as we ignore more and more

posthaste

the summer sun departs
flees for warmer climes
and in the spin of days
autumn starts to wind
down to winter’s ways
the calendar then charts
when spring finally appears
posthaste grow the flowers
bedecked about with dew
and these are all the seasons
I long to spend with you

sobriquet

our spans all limited
our limitations
all too clear
and we can never hear
the words said about us
once we are gone
the sobriquet short or long
we cannot know posterity
all we can do is attempt
and in attempting hope
that we are remembered
as we wish to be
and so I say
live today
as though tomorrow
were the day
that makes them say
what they will say

fraught

bliss inconsolable
tears of joy water
the ground
grown fallow
from tiresome tears
and there arose
a rose of gold
fraught with all
the world has wrought
perfumed perfection

dilapidated

take this dilapidated heart
but do not despair
it is a fixer upper
but not beyond repair

apocryphal

history, they say,
is written
by the winners
winner-winners
full of chicken dinners
but I say
history is bought
by the buyers and
repackaged and
resold by their liars
who would build
collective memory
out of the apocryphal
conspiracy so bountiful
truths pulled like taffy
from not to maybe
stretched so thin
as to be invisible
and thus we the indivisible
become the unadvisable
when the spurious so risible
and yet so easily believed
deceivers always find
the easy to deceive

phantasm

from nightmare
extricate i beg
awake and find
this phantasm
as ephemeral
as the fallen leaf
soon to decay
and nourish
the earth anew

respite

all the words in my head
repeat without surcease and
yet in the space between the
ache of a day filled with
constant regret for potential
unfulfilled and the moment
before sleep overtakes me
I find a moment of respite
in the cradle of your arms

lackadaisical

world marred
by whistles
by bells
alarming alarms jarring
soul from slumber
to wakeful worry
how precious then
a lackadaisical day
when sleep surpasses
its allotment
when tired turns
to spoons and
snuggles deep
into quiet content

undulate

i close my eyes
and cease to see
this cubicle
but see a sea
instead
where sand sifts
between my toes
and water washes
off my woes
my muscles stop
their clenching
and i float
upon the waves
my long hair
undulating like algae
tension dissolves
and dissipating
until
the phone rings
and the song
my heart sings
subsides
as i open
up my eyes

pedagogical

deny the truth
or whatever
ignore the facts
the pedagogical
no more lauded
when ignorance
pedestaled for
convenience sake
disregard the quake
and quality of
research in your
search to besmirch
reality if it means
you can continue
without the work
of not being a jerk

aerie

unfledged we flutter
our featherless wings
atop the cliff in an aerie
perched precariously
and pray for prey
procured by talons
not our own lest we
starve and plummet

coruscate

water whooshes
through the tap
in a pulsing thrum
morning knuckles
rub heavy-lidded eyes
floaters coruscate
past cornea
as all the world
through sparkler seen
body fireworks
to wake this weary flesh

Noachian

the greybeards
tell tales of a time
before the sea rose
to Noachian heights
(or is it depths)
of a time before the shore
was miles from where
it was the year before
before the sky
unceasing wept
the greybeards
mythologize and say
that once the ancients
called the rise a lie
before the polar bears
and leopards and eagles
and bees all died

spoonerism

it’s early days still
pet names are tried
on for size
and cast aside
inside jokes are gestating
awaiting a quiet birth
and spoonerisms
made of mangled joy
deployed in giddy glee
as we accept that
pobody’s nerfect
neither you nor me
but together
we just might be

fiduciary

toddler truths:
when a little
walks up
and whispers
you their secret -
you have
a fiduciary
obligation
to keep it.

comprise

what building materials are these
snippets and scraps and smidgens
of songs and poems in verse or
tunes played in backroom memory
a hum of what may be a truth
or may be a figment or false
twisted by hope and laughter
and time and tears into a shining
diamond of a heart in a coal chest
comprised of all my worst and best
this is my yesterday and today
and part of my tomorrows
these my joys and sorrows

knackered

when days are long
stretched like
old rubber bands
friable and apt
to snap and leave me
knackered and
bound to break into
brittle ends
love amends
restoring elasticity
gift from you to me

deke

my heart a puck
dropped into
a frozen world
slapped around
racing from one
place to another
flying in space
deked by the defender
serial offender
render my end better
into the goal

hobbyhorse

my current hope most fervent
ambition set, attempt begun:
to climb upon my hobbyhorse -
ride off into the setting sun,
to leave behind this drudgery,
to make my life anew.
believe me, if you lived it...
you would want that too

maunder

her thoughts a jumble
her stories tangle
her mouth maunders on
as her listeners try
to follow along

genial

the wonder is not
your blue eyes
your kind smile
your warm heart
your genial demeanor
your silly giggle
your contented sigh
the wonder is not you
the wonder is I
get to share in them
how rare a gem

belfry

echolocation
shows my destination
ahead and above
the belfry, my home
and each night I wake
and each night I roam
the moths make my dinner
in summer
in winter I dream
of lost seraphim
bells that once rang
like the church choir sang
a priest was deployed
pews well employed
now my siblings and I
the sole congregation
immune to temptation
or indoctrination

exoteric

what means a joy if gone unrecorded
experienced solely by the one there
in the moment full to bursting
for none but themselves
the quiet giddiness
of a secret shared
an inside joke

what means love

unbroadcast in some
instatwitted So-Me sense
untethered to the internet yoke
made not for exoteric recompense
in clicks and hearts and thumbs up-raised
what good the goal achieved but left unpraised

triskaidekaphobia

hall as black as pitch
in perfect dark
each creak whines
as though the house
in pain and pause
you stop your feet
in fear of being eaten
by the shaky timbers
you hear behind a door
the tick of time
the ancient chime
tolls thirteen and
your heart screams
a fear being born
triskaidekaphobia
yours forevermore

wheedle

precious commodity
hoarded like gold
still with patience
wheedle out the truth
rare and shiny
make of it treasure
to buy your freedom

idée fixe

compulsion
overrules
convention

the mind's attic
is haunted
by an idée fixe

ghostly visitations
howling in psyche's dark
and rattling your chains

blandish

i could stand no more bare
as naked as grace upon
the stage for sale as i am
in the face of your kind
words blandishing me
along sweeter than the
gentle tug of your hand
eager to move towards
tomorrow together and
naked here my blemishes
by you ignored i am found
i am whole i am adoring
and adored

scapegoat

He'd make himself a martyr,
but neither sacrificial lamb
nor scapegoat, he.
He made his own misery.
His persecution nowhere
but his mind, to truth
ever blind. He cannot discern
the difference between
privilege revoked and oppression.
What others have that
he does not is his obsession.
Not recognizing what he truly lacks
is empathy. He begs for sympathy;
pandering to the worst - he
provokes and promotes mobocracy.

caustic

booze
and caustic wit
she brought
and never
did the things
she ought
but perish
the thought
that you're like her
you think yourself
Mrs. Parker
instead a sepia
shadow of
don't begrudge
you just nudge
where she
would shove

redound

the willing would
were it so requested
pluck out their eyes
so as not to see 
the ignominy redounding
off the one
for whom they
parrot public praise
but privately deride
they have no side
but his backside
they tiger ride
and hope they will not fall
before his reeking,
rotting, gaping maw
devours them all

amaranthine

lake reflected sky
painted with
amaranthine glow
before the gloaming
as is my roseate cheek
in the brisk autumn air
season of change
reflected in dusk

divulge

like a flower
all my secrets
I will divulge

petals unfolding
with morning dew
in the morning sun

buried treasure too
to the busy bee
who waits to delight in me

futhark

the heart writes in runes
hieroglyphs and chicken scratch
it jots notes in the margins
in sanskrit and futhark
latin and old english
in logograms and cyrillic
the heart writes all the words
and jumbles them up
in a neverending dadaesque poem
that none read the same
but if you would read
you would then see
my heart writes these
and also, your name

pursy

a gift given
unkindly received
still kindly given
but the giver
given a pursy mouth
as gift becomes
less likely to give again

sawbones

there is no Sherlock greater
no eager student more intent
no future sawbones bent
over foetal pig in science class
desperate their AP test to pass
more dissecting and discerning
with youthful pride in learning
more cautious and tenacious
to discover truth in the autopsy -
than me
standing over the corpse
of what was and will never be

mitigate

time has done
what youth could not

the creaks of age remind me
in sharp retort upon rising
every day of my decades

earthbound where
once I thought to fly

instead laborious
I clamber and climb
to stand upon a precipice

sorrow at the might-have-beens
mitigated by perspective

hard won and from
a height but half imagined
as impossible

I see the world as Icarus
before the fall
yet still standing
standing still

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

brackish

salt marsh dreams
the screams of birds aloft
painting softened skies
and stir the air scented by
the brackish water below
ripples in their breeze
and all the reeds wave hello

martinet

I refused to be
a martinet and
make the rules
to set him straight
his crooked path
his own but one
I would not join
I’d rather walk alone

augur

I reckon that the skies will cry
and care not what you think
for one, the setting sun a sign
of time gone by the night to come
another sees the gloaming as
a hint of heaven coming
I cannot augur aught but this
tomorrow’s tear, tomorrow’s kiss
some tomorrow both will come
and neither brought by sky or sun

irascible

he sits alone
in his booth
his solitude
his pride and proof
against a world
that will not work
to the kinks
and to the quirks
of an irascible
yet kind old man
who lived a life
as best he can
but can’t make sense
of all the hate
the world now seems
to dictate

desuetude

fallen fallow
the knack
for breeze bygone
my wit lapsed
into desuetude
my attitude
too tense for ease
I cease to talk
and silence
welcomes me

wangle

that one could 

were one 

so inclined 

wangle an invitation

so I would 

with all 

my cunning bent

upon your welcome 

wrest by stealth 

or brazen begging 

a space within

your heart 

kludge

a country built
as a hasty solution
for centuries long confusion
a kludge of punishing possibility
ignoring native ancestry and
pushing a claim of manifest destiny
oppressed to oppressing rapidly
and rapidly depressed to depressing

sporadic

in the space
of a hopeful affection
sporadically sprinkled
with crushing confusion
lies the question
which is real and
which the illusion

excursion

the wide world awaits
unfolding like a paper map
with adventure in the creases
each new excursion, the path
not the diversion, and all
you leave behind either
grows or wilts in wishing
missed, unmissed, or missing

chivy

like parents of a 

recalcitrant teenager

we chivy expectation 

along towards an 

unknown destination 

shuffling and mumbling 

moving in fits and starts

yet inching future forward 

misnomer

too tentative to title
to designate
would surely tempt
the fates
and all the days
and dates
that went before
for surely
whatever I could call
would be a misnomer
and hubris comes
before the fall

ethereal

the ethereal nature
of human emotion
is that it lasts
no longer than breath

your fleetfooted joy
or plodding despair
outlive none

none but the artist
who wrestles and pins
imperfection into eternity
grasping immortality

brandish

rush into the fray
the messy melee
heart honed and
brandished like
a sword and swung
in heroic arc
deflecting the swipes
of the ungallant
to run the gauntlet
and winsomely win
the favor of Fortune

hiatus

this the respite
a hiatus from
my workaday world
new adventures
yet to come
and with them hope
a guest long-standing
but no less welcome

tortuous

life is planned
on grid lines
mapped meridians
squared and sorted
good for a guide
but life is lived
outside the lines
a tortuous path
from cradle to grave
the lines disarrayed

satiate

hope: the drink
that satiates yet
never drowns,
no matter how
much one downs

miscible

find frets unplayed
by fingers splayed
along the strings
fret a window missed
life lived so long alone
to align along the lines
of another & an other's things
yet miscible our melodies
disparate we harmonize
and universe also sings

garniture

memorize the facade
every crack and curlicue
the garnitures that grace
like the mantel above
the ancient fireplace
the pressed tin ceilings
and slated roofs
and the grooves upon
the centers of the stairs
and the melancholy
in the holy air of a
once cherished but
now forgotten place
echoed in your heart
etched across your face

smite

and he shouted
from the pulpit
"If I should lie,
may the good Lord
smite me down"
just before the puff
of smoke we all
thought was incense
until we saw
his sandals
smoldering

plaintive

so long i've sung sad songs
i raised my voice in plaintive cry
against the unvierse's
where and when and how and why
but not today, today my melody
less melancholy, more sly
for today, at least, the world
no more or less joyful but i
sing a sweeter song
than in days gone by

démarche

pencil poised
I ponder
I gather
argument
to issue out
a démarche
my thoughts
wander
pronouncements
not my purview
politics persuasion
against invasion
made not to war
but woo

balkanize

we do it to ourselves
fractious fragmentation
we balkanize our lives
seeking out differentiation
separating you and me
instead of recognizing
our common humanity

omnium-gatherum

we are the defiant detritus

the fallen flotsam brought
together by time and tide

driftwood daughters of fate
furious at the state of our
disunion and together tied

an omnium-gatherum of
gallant gallimaufry but
out of our miscellany
we find common cause

a the common enemy
the crushing yoke of patriarchy
which if
in federated unity we combine
we may ourselves disencumber
but only
when we remember
that not only do we outlast
but we outnumber

aggregate

the mother, the father,
the lover, the liar,
the doctor, the teacher,
the thief & the vet,
the child, the stranger,
the immigrant, the preacher,
the bum or the baronet.
you are the aggregate of
all the people you've ever met
so if all those people
look the same
and act the same
and think the same -
you're drawn from a smaller set.
and does that make you
more or less?
an epic or a novellette?
and which would you prefer?
and which would you regret?

ransack

nimble fingered thief
with trash panda stealth
ransacking your stores
every precious thing
you thought was yours
is debt not wealth
and brings you grief

totem

of family made or born
tiny totems incorporeal
taken out to hold
in times of trouble
or time triumphant
emblems of community
greater than just you or me

passim

my love is not

the story writ

ink soaked into the paper 

set and printed on the page 

in format fixed

my love is this 

but more than this

my love is

annotations penciled passim 

hearts scribbled and then erased 

doodles drawn & wandering words 

underlined, circled and noted

marginalia most devoted

my love is

faze

I could wish
myself unflappable
unwavering in
tempest and gale
but slightest breeze
may faze me
depending on
which way
the wind blows
and yet though
the weather may
bend my boughs
I’ve yet to break
and so in the storm
there my comfort take

silly season

winter was wont
to sober the judge
and logic dominate
judgement but now
the silly season ceaseless is
and all the judges drunk

clarion

gumshoe stuck to the pavement
under damp fedora shadowfaced
one eyebrow raised in clarion claxon
of warning more obvious than
the trenchcoat advertisement or
dangling soggy cigarette creating
a one man fog softly obscuring
the long-legged, sequin-splashed dame
who'll take his heart and make his name

luftmensch

i envy the ones who float
  buoyant dreamers
  
my pursuits weigh me
          like to drowning
                                           

      and yet

            the luftmensch
                    
                       bobs 

disencumbered by anchoring anxiety

virtual Candides cascading over waterfalls still sound 

while the rest on rock founder

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

plummy

life lived miniature 

exacting and precise

perfect simulacra 

in Victorian attire

of plummy summer 

set in Somerset 

badminton batting

before teatime

recalling a novel

half remembered

her dreams defy

the neighbor’s 

car alarm

higgledy-piggledy

like boardwalk bought
taffy stretched from
dawn to dusk
days run together
higgledy-piggledy
in melted ice cream swirls
sunscreen scented
like winter’s dreams

volition

I would not of my own volition lie
but I cannot see the truth as aught
but complication muddying this situation
and all my allies, few though they be,
remind me that to omit is not a sin the same
and to reveal that which need not be revealed
would achieve naught but to sully my name
so I bite my tongue, swallow pride, avoid blame

acquisitive

walk the shelves
with fingers trailing
on perfect spines
the lines buiguiling
acquisitive heart
desiring every
story in the store
never to be sated
always wanting more

supersede

nothing more conceited
than the pricks who
think their dick's need
supersedes the needs
of she who acceded
in the hopes her hopes
would not be stampeded
by the deeds speed but
she concedes it may indeed

gritty

broken tooth
cracked on cherry pit
in delicious irony
the portentous tyranny
ignored as gritty blood
drifts over tongue
sweet and tart and
metallic and sad
at picnic gone awry
i should have known then
shouldn't i

contraption

laid out
like cogs
and springs
and wheels
and things
each part
of your heart
dissected like
some newfangled
contraption this
odd attraction
to reverse engineer
perfection sans peer

lade

take all your petty resentments
sort and sift the wheat from chaff
lade the wagon and wheel away
the greater part to the mill
where you may grind them
into meal to bake your hate
into loaves to feed you forever

puckish

summer solstice sings
its incandescent incantation
in grasshopper stridulation
and stars its lower atmosphere
in lightening bugs celestial dance
sending lovers glance astray
to draw you in
with puckish grin
and languid from
the heat of day dissipating
anticipating sweet disarray

tonsorial

oh i know this rodeo
your mouth on mine
your hands entwined
with my tonsorial lasso
i snare you, isn't that so

demeanor

i should not trust as i do
singed so oft my skin is raw
from liars' flames too near
yet i am taken in by
your demeanor so refined
and kind i cannot tell
if you are as seeming
or something else entirely
and so i err on the other side
of caution and of care

insuperable

crampon clamber
sherpa shepherded
the peak attained
restrain yourself
judge not the ones
who find the height
insuperable in their
bare feet, alone, unled,
no oxygen and unfed
and though behind
still, they climb

boilerplate

needle prick repeat
snark for humor
stab the earnest
belittle those
whose skin eroded
by false friendship
boilerplate excuse
to follow half apology
and victim blame
is the glow of
your gaslight

flounce

oh you petty despot
to flounce about the place
as if somehow you own it
waving your slight seniority
as though it were a trophy
of inherent superiority
and not a badge of privilege
unearned except by the trick
of being the loudest prick

assiduous

I build my tomorrows
in stacks and rows
geometry of yesterdays
and bygone choice
as assiduous as
an antique mason
chipping away at
the jagged edges
of unmet potential
and possibility
to pile upon each
constructing a tower
the top of which
from where I might
at such a height
peer into eternity
or crumble into ruin

recidivism

resolve dissolves
in the exquisite ache
of time expanding
into the infinite chasm
of all your tomorrows
broken heart recidivism
calls out into the void
between midnight
and morning dulling
regret circumspect

oneiric

colors bleed
in poppyseed
explosions
in Oz-like iterations
walking through
vibrant hue to
watercolor fade
dazed from the
oneiric expression
of artist imagination
spread like vivisected
aspiration breathing
its last exhortation
in swan song
contemplation
of the infinite divine
metamorphisized into
shape and form sublime

scrutinize

action accountable
to none but he who
rules in hells deep
upon his greasy throne
and those who
scrutinize are criticized
and those who dream
to dare to speak
will be euthanized
so be advised

equivocal

on fishing wire tightropes
our calluses all that keep
our balanced feet from slicing
as we soft shoe shuffle equivocal
between two choices forgettable
courage could keep us aloft
missteps plague the soft

chasten

methinks
this life
sent to chasten me
for a previous
wherein I was
a dastard sublime
so in this spin
of fortune's wheel
I must amend
or end

ineffable

if one
believes
in a deity...
a sole creator
that built a universe

and is to us
as we are
to the microbes
in our guts...

designer of
a plan ineffable...

why then
so many wars
to proclaim
certainty in a
hypothetical's
hypothetical

vocation

so young
I thought I knew
I thought I had
a vocation I was
called to
but the voices
of the world
were very loud
and while for some
talent seems endowed
I slogged
and stalled
stammered and
was stonewalled
I lost the calling
in cacophony
and now I wander
and wonder
who I’m meant to be

quibble

If I were to note

I would not 

But 

You did ask

And so

If I had to 

Quibble over

The tiniest thing

it would be

If it were

If I did 

It would be 

This

bombast

in the chaos
      be the calm
in the rumor
     be the truth
in the tempest
      be the eye
in the bombast
     be the whisper
be a statue in the storm
still within the whirlwind
perspective comes with peace

kinetic

the woozy ache
of insomnia jitters
leave you skittering
limbs a quiver
and discombobulated
a kinetic coffee punk
subsisting on caffeine
and nicotine and rage

malapert

arms akimbo in superhero stance
nose upturned, eyes defiant
feet planted like the roots of
a thousand year oak
this malapert mini mahatma stands
betwixt the world and darkness
her cape ethereal, her hair a tangle
the smudge of dirt across her cheek
the badge she wears telling ne'er-do-wells
BEWARE

amalgamate

i have never met,

at least... not yet,

the kind of date

with whom i'd amalgamate

nuance

the world in varied
shape and shade
with every hue
proudly displayed
in every form
and space arrayed -
requires of us this:
nuance in thought
empathy in deed
we, all of us,
same colors bleed
so be kindest
to those in need
or burn in the abyss

circumspect

yet still I heed the ping
of he who leads me
down the garden path
it loops back
so circular I repeat
I know I should object
archive or delete
be more complete
within and listen
when heart urges me
to be more circumspect
wait for one playing less
displaying more respect
but the waiting’s long
primrose’s pull is strong

nectar

morning fuel most days
necessity more than pleasure
yet rainy morning made
on a day that stretches
into the no plans of forever
becomes the nectar
of languid love

shot-clog

when pints are poured
in every group
a shot-clog
holding forth
remains to hold
the bar right up
tight as tipple
loosens up
uptight tongue
and herein find
may make up mind
they start the night
and stay behind
beyond the time
when wiser heads
their beds may find

disbursement

poor pauper, I
once waited upon
disbursement of affection
from miserable misers
to feed my hungry heart
better instead to forage
and in wilds find
sustenance sourced
from nature’s bounty
than starve in hope
for crumbs falling

bread

by trial
and error
we learn

flour to start
and something else
to make us rise

mix ourselves together
knead our lumps
allow us rest to grow

we are the bread
baked in the oven
of hearth and history

we nourish ourselves
and share of us
to feed a home

lacuna

as elixir metabolizes
into bloodstream billowing
a brief lacuna lolls
twixt the final sip
and morning drip
surprise arises
blackout beneficent

commemorate

today we commemorate
those who have gone before
who fought for a love
be it a love of country
or god or family or friend
who risked all to uphold
the idea that we are not one
but a part of something greater
than the ego than the id
than superego
we are more
than ourselves
and so became
angels

yen

in darkest hours
when most dark thoughts
rise from deeps
subconscious singing out
we all have
a yen for comfort
and in you
i find it

disparage

question your motivations
question your assumptions
and associations
make distinct facts
and opinions
discern what conditions
influence you
and once you do
if your determinations
won’t leave you full
of self recriminations
change or remain
but remember
the world may disparage you
for holding true or alterations
but will you sleep
you are the company
you most keep

apposite

sincerest sentiment
delivered timely
better than
the apposite
and urbane
strained
and delayed
after the fact
detracts 

scavenger

collect from
the last gasp carcass
of this dying earth
pluck and pull
and pack away
remember thee
the honey bee
sing along the last song
of Kirtland's Warbler
or croaking frogs
or wild dogs
or flowers bloom
in garbage bogs
be a scavenger saving
from the wreckage
a collage more beautiful
than dreaming

peer-to-peer

change dictated
struggles to survive
beyond the dictator

fiat founded it fumbles
when the masses rumble

instead the spark sent
peer-to-peer will thrive
like neurons firing
or roots of runners
spreading underground
to burst forth come spring
in hope uprising

pungle

we define ourselves
by what we buy and what we make
morals quantified
we prioritize and civilization devise

decided by the people's people
....presumably

so it behooves us
to pungle up our part
for schools and roads and art
for we also pay for bombs and banks
with never any thanks
and how much we pay for each
tells you what our value ranks

remittance

paper parcel

left upon

the doorstep

enclosed within:

1 heart

1 hope

1 dream

remittance due

upon receipt

or

if items damaged in transit

please return to sender

coin of the realm

though has never
been truly the case
still for one brief
moment it seemed
that integrity might be
the coin of the realm
instead of perfidy

tenacious

fever dream
awoken by
tenacious cough
infection exhausted
sheets swarm
like snake cluster
rest brings respite

palimpsest

i am a floppy disk
obsolete palimpsest

and you are but a memory
of a first draft
of a file
saved
and saved
and saved
and deleted
and recovered
and rewritten
and moved
to a hard drive
on a different desk

countermand

if i had a nickel for every time
my mouth countermanded
an order from my brain
and kept on with its refrain
i would have all the money
that every mint has ever made
were my blurting paid

glitch

the opportunity
to overthrow
a feature
not a glitch
democracy is
beautiful
even when
it is a bitch

borne

and so it passes
from person to person
like an air-borne pathogen
transforming annoyance to rage
at every stage increasing momentum
like an avalanche like a pandemic like a
hurricane of hate growing greater and greater
until we are destroyed in the asteroid-like impact

regale

gather ye round, sit ye down
and I will regale you
with a tale of damsels more
distressing than distressed,
where every knight must
do better than their best,
where wild beasts
from myth may roam
and the Fairefolk call
your home home,
where terror or triumph
behind each door awaits
the heroes herein who
fight the Fates
gather ye round by the fireside
for the shadows are deep
and while the storm rages
you must stay inside

darling

time has washed away
the ache from memory
no more with regret
do I remember what was
but still a phantom twinge
as of a wound long healed
reminds me of a time
when given names were
never a whisper
or wished to be
I was just baby
you were my darling
and such we were
before distance made us
strangers with surnames

incipient

the days keep coming
and chiseled away
certain things we
thought were done
and fought for
but the incipient truth
appears through
the glass darkly
that rights are no more
than a shared dream
and we are drifting
into a nightmare
unless we communally
shake ourselves awake

footle

better tis to fill one's days
with hobbies, cats and friends
and hope that love
will find me on its own
a string of suitors
has footled with my heart
taking up my time
and I have let them
no more to entertain trifles
as though they were treasures

stratagem

the enemy is bold
and in their boldness
baldfaced lying
ignore consequence
to those dying
they are not their people
so what care they

how can one reason
with apathy
with bigotry
with sheer disdain

their is no stratagem
to devise that will
reunite the enraged
with empathy
for they never had it

hypocrisy and narcissism
the banner they wave
and clutch their pearls
at those who say
the right thing wrong

muse (v)

carve out a little
space and time
that's mine
and mine alone
to muse upon
might have beens
delicately trace
upon the page
stillborn ambition
and use derision
to pen away
all self denial
manifested into art
to take the mind
apart and reassemble

links

the link that links
these dirty finks
not just time
spent on the links
but adulterous hijinks
and that the one
of the other thinks
a meritorious distinction
earned with
nods and winks
you could ask
the all-knowing sphinx
and even he could not
explain that riddle
but his cat eye blinks

ephemeral

they danced
on gilded feet
to brass bands
reverberate
before a war intruded
with grim consequence
scathing and pruning
but for this
moment ephemeral
young and bright
and blooming
these hearts met
and in movement
found surcease from 
fear and imminent grief

trivial

so much we cannot control
easy then to fixate on the trivial
to lull the mind into complacency
with a pantomime of power
pretend presumption persuading
ourselves just enough else
we would wild go if truth be told

hypermnesia

odd blunting and erosion
of the waves of time
washing over life’s beach
yet some are bulwarks
against the rising tides

hypermnesia builds
a perfect bridge stretching
out over here to there
linking our bits of land
with precision

so you are in memory
preserved from drowning

asperity

patience run thin
like mascara in
a double rain
and pain onslaught
the inky black
dissolving and
painting washed out
watercolor cheeks
in volcano ash hues
as flicks of mud
freckle the calf
fleeing the asperity
of heartbreak's
perversity
feet pound out
the proclamation
couched in cliche
not good enough
not smart enough
not pretty enough
not funny enough
not enough
not again
not today

prodigious

time reviewed

vision skewed
to ends unthunk

prodigious talent turned
titanic treasure sunk

down beneath the waves

days eroded like the dunes
no more to stop a rising tide

coral dreams for parrot fish
to snap with beaky jaws

digested aspirations make bleached beaches

valetudinarian

once robust
unpotted and
placed outside
esteem
struggles
to survive
valetudinarian
in the silty soil
the world provides

circadian

in urban cocoon
we feel her heartbeat
the circadian rhythm
of Gaia beneath our feet
overlaid in asphalt
and unsung by the birds
in an endless summer
still, we use the words
of an earlier time
and call this spring
as though seasons
were still a thing
we cling to a clock
to the artificial tick-tock
of a life support beep
and those who notice
mourn her and weep

accolade

among a certain type,
humble and profound,
imposter syndrome
more the rule than the exception;
but believe me when I tell you
that you are, without exception,
exceptional
and every accolade
bestowed upon you earned.
though your modesty would
have you think it unconfirmed -
please know, your value
by the discerning is discerned.

resuscitate

she gave up the ghost
quite unwilling
but once relinquished
Hope dead
beyond redemption
so put back the paddles
turn off the pump
you cannot resuscitate
that which you killed
with slow neglect

logy

the long pause

logy and lurching 

towards cognition  

fumbling past definition 

in the morning after mood

partitioned by regret 

and contrition 

putsch

i was never
revolutionary
i worked for change
but always incrementally
i did not see
that those opposed
had no such qualms
that they would happily
take up arms
against the defenseless
so now i
who never dreamt
i'd dream of a putsch
before we screwed the pooch
do muse upon a coup d'etat
as though it were a la-di-dah
sad for what we've lost
sadder still for the cost

nonpareil

sleep serene
in the exhaustion
on the other side
of exquisite anxiety
slumber in
the nonpareil
of nonchalance
wherein the vault
of all your fucks
is empty
your bank
devoid of cash
has crashed

writhe

hate 

          within

      burn

long to 

make you              

squirm         

       worm       

                   writhe  

             and 

  wriggle

like a        

 squiggle  

           as I 

              prepare 

          the

 hook

inexorable

debt
a scythe blade
pendulum swinging
back and forth
the rope held by
a preoccupied toddler
and resentment
the knife
creeping ever closer
the end inexorable
impatient guillotine

intoxicate

the pheromones
that emanate
in miasmic haze
to fill the air
twixt here
and there
intoxicate
stronger than
whiskey or wine
and when we kiss
I taste the divine

resurrection

from the ashes
I am reborn
again
in perpetuity
and burned
again
in my naivety
my resurrection
infallibly linked
to optimism
jinxed
to repeat
infinitely

propitious

light the sky 

morning sun of

liquid dew

refractions scrape

again stone 

the sword of day

propitious as 

a warrior goddess 

rising from 

her birthing bed

to fight for the 

world she bore

ecstatic

after the end
as the pavement
cracks and crumbles
into a terrestrial reef
comes a riot of color
like coral burst forth in
the chaotic democracy
of a haphazardly sloppy spring
the meadow's ecstatic offering
to the effulgent sun
populated by a lonely bee
wondering what happened
to everyone

adversary

if one would wish
to set a precedent
for how to fuck
one's presidency
one should set
oneself an adversary
persistent and slow
patient and pernicious
whilst they themselves
act ever more suspicious
but what do I know
I'm still hoping 
just desserts
are just delicious

gullible

the fault
our own credulity
spun into silk
cast skyward
in a soaring arc
we are both
the catcher
and the caught
gullible guppies
gawping at a shiny fly
lured to an end by a lie
we decorated ourselves