the springsign of today is a lie
/the springsign of today is a lie
we will ourselves believe
this mountain ruse
of air & hope
the springsign of today is a lie
we will ourselves believe
this mountain ruse
of air & hope
She tells me Justin had good jokes,
good manners, was a card shark
and a militant Baptist. They broke up
because she always burst into giggles
for trees they are formidable / thus the name / giants as if
they’re mythic / as if they know something we don’t / when we start
through the eerie tunnel it’s still early / foggy / Hanne asks me
to put on spooky music / says she feels like we’re trespassing
The last time you held my hand
to cross the road, I knew
you would never hold it again,
I’d have to go it alone.
Read MoreOn the east side of I-
81, sunflowers are
jading, but still tall as me.
On the west side, three silos,
The hat on my head wants to jump off the cliff each time the wind rises.
It wants to pour the darkness down its throat, into its belly.
It wishes to hold the small fate of a blade of grass in its arms.
It does not want to be worshipped by me.
Some baby boomers doze in the dark hall;
others, grey or hairless, travel back,
flower children impatient for the sun to set.
A red balloon wafts
over a paddock of horses
near Haworth. It lifts
on bursts of air that reverse
The tower tells lies. In the tower, I go through rooms upon rooms of mostly velvet. The velvet is not always blue.
Read MoreYou can no longer get there
and if you did
you wouldn’t know it
The clocks are stopped
still you know it’s time
to take down the leashes
and walk the whimpering dogs
The sun touches everything
and yet you can’t quite see it. I never knew
how a child’s voice could break up the silence
Read MoreAfter some drinks
if he smashes his fist
on their Olive Garden table
and slurs an insult,
During the week we eloped, your eyes bulged
as shiny and sleepless as supermoons,
then you asked if I were dead, sounding doubtful
and agitated like everyone who meets me.
We could collapse it, the umbrella,
and not get wet. But we hold it aloft
between us so we can be close.
Made and unmade,
we make stories and call them memories
make memories and call them identity,
make identity and call it dream,
& so how can the mind / so vast & intricate
one day forget where to bathe / or how to breathe
becoming is easy enough for most of us to get at least part
of it right loving is easy compared to being loved
hating, too
Each instant, a shadow
of the one before. I
am the shadow of a shadow