Sixteen Revisited

shell fragment mementos
hold in me pointing the compass in
every direction

splitting hairs and
debating the wind inside an aquarium
all thumbs to some final species
that can observe itself

changing I hide within nature  
expecting tragedy to teach something
soft

under moonlit hydrogen
bandaging together thought

.

What did you mean

till poetry was the only
word left and that's all
everyone could talk about

poetry in cups and in
the evening's surplus
of magnificence
poetry on the rotisserie
like blue laughter held
under a waterfall

that too the faintest breath
can contain the deliverance
from our tears

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I don't think this

when in every breath drawn
life escapes us to still memories
in a box in the closet
until light has been quietly dried and shriveled
and disappeared

if nothing you say scares me
if nothing I say scares me


.

Reflections On The Outside

It's strange how looking ahead far
enough you see only backwards
and how the same name for now and forever
is the only name that became you

And as that light moves slowly
out into space and
everything disappears I'll be waiting for you
when nothing happens, and I hope
somehow we disappear together
.

A Peek Into The Formation Of A Dream

In the night she appeared
majesticly bright and
her smile lay its beaming
truth upon my shadowy face

I didn't fall in Love
she swept me along with her
into the air
and changed everything
all carried away with my heart
on the wings of her soul


.

You knew the world was like this

.
From a word a paper world came
then worlds from paper words 
black swallows against the white sky

they say that once you feel
you can only learn to forget
what radiates out as
the center becomes somewhere else
as now appears in the air
a silence more sacred
than its confession


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Battle for the space between words

.
They have come for
the spaces between my words
so I slip them under the door
and stand back praying
inside with what's left
between silence

The antique clasp of
calligraphy now
closed and safe
around my neck
holding tight together
one long meaningless
word on a string
.


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