glean

skipping stones across the water
on a muggy summer day
still and hot
like a palmed rock
i'm weighed and measured
ere i skim across the top
flying for a moment,
brief and bewitching
attempt to glean
the depths unseen
and hope i go
farther with this throw
before i sink
into the cool ink
until some far off day
i wash up on the shore
am thrown again,
further than before
by a whimsical arm,
by rascally charm,
by all things I swore
I'd be immune to evermore

lexical

homonyms & homographs & homophones
obfuscate the space
we both inhabit
decorating it with difference
as varied and wild as birdsong
a semantic cacophony
in lexical disarray
where inference influences
and meaning amorphous
where always means
forever or for now
too easy to change intent
and write the right
rites of regret

oaf

clumsy limbed
ungainly uncontainable strained
for meaning trained
for something
but reaching reaching
wrenching smashing
oaf made of thumbs
covered in butter
and bitter
convinced that it
will get better
but never knowing it so
so onward we go
uncool unkempt
redemptive

keelhaul

do not forget
the sunset in wavy lines
the dolphins' laugh
the whale song
singing you to sleep
do not forget
the majesty of the deep
as keelhauled
you are dragged and drowned
take a moment
and appreciate the sound
of your lungs pushing out their last
enjoy the beauty of your ending
when it's too late to change the past
mutineers and rebels know this
as they wave to Davey Jones &
let go, let go, let go and
hope for bliss

quantal

we are we or we are not
us or bust
apart
you are not the you that I knew
I, the eye, sees that I am not the I
not a lie, just not true
awry
both and neither
locked in a box
theoretically dead maybe maybe
asleep
the quantal event as you are spent
disengaged disingenuous disembarking
determines the end of the experiment
we not we/you not you/I now I
alone

zwieback

black holes spin like tops
cardboard castles crumble
and fold in on themselves
in multidimensional origami
tesseract dice rolled in
a board game bigger
than we
we kittens
batting at string theory
we babies
gumming a zwieback multiverse
toasted and sweet, we eat
we compete
and with knowledge incomplete
we fight entropy's inevitable defeat
and dream

hale

fortitude found
under a couch cushion
luck
for I thought I lost it
the bits of me gone missing
just hidden
my patience -
tucked away in the wrong cabinet
my strength -
underneath the bed
my heart -
fallen down the back of the closet
pieces of me
everywhere discovered
as I clean out
the shame, humiliation, disgrace,
the rubbish that overtakes
throw them away
incinerate them
to clear the stench of failure
I reassemble disparate bits
to make me
hale and whole
to start anew
with more of me
and less of you