can't

chassis, wick, and faulted, drag
suffer, strive to feed same failing form
and Jones compete. ache to build
as ample show as they, though
never here to see, so much
to do away, to make, create
and earn, in cavy dash, a
living wage, 'though worth
an hour weighed meant life
each moment whisked aside
to forge same features on.

sans elliott

who defined us? who
first tried us? who
defriended, soft, defied us?
when it ended, who supplied us
with a moment, with a song? who
enlarged our scope and spied us
recognized the love inside us, brought
our tension out and plied us with a
deeper, kinder bond? and when it
felt like we had lost us who stayed here
and who forgot us? who made eons fly
and echoes boom, brought out our
elephant in rooms of doubt from corner
bunnies dusted and who felt and shared
and loved us when we
thought we were alone?
o did any see who held us?
who cried over us and led us
over mountains in our minds and
brought us home to find our rest? did
karma, kismet meet and plot to place an
ally in our way or ways, a soldier's arm, a
hermit's bow, a waif to ply a bitter wave? did they
by once-lost lovers leave behind a stepping stone from
grief that might, if leapt upon, propel us on? did they
indeed align these mirror images of
freckles in our eyes? did i?

Thresh

Step on tread on beat beneath me sod and

Tramp down brickle, thorn, and vine, tamp

Into place trails, wending, wide, drag

Double-bitted bite around, swing 

Fell bent and broken branches, kindle

Pile to burn inside, to grill and laugh

This party planned so long advance to

Leer and sway in liquor's haze a

Long awaited song refrain hum now

As one foot follows, drips perspire

Expire in exhalation, drought on lips chapped

Lick to tame and shoulder on, lift

Arbor's arms asunder, toss on pile to 

Moulder, gain endorphin there inside

As I demolish what grew on

Alive

Graven

Promise, fraud of whitest perjur, 

Flower willingly deceived,

Jack's sudden lack of effort:

Then, orphaned listless, sing

To fly, and cry, to try...

Let go? 

Can one scar discard, or

Chasm,

Molten meld, to mend?

Will, would, wanted

If abandon to 

Abyss of time or

Was?

Unsay all spoken? Oh!

Possible, elapsed echoes scan

To press Undo? 

Un-forsake and 

Re-awake? Rebuild cold wall of safety?

Repair Scrat's etching, fault erase, 

Bring home such truth:

Unexplained and uncontained,

Re-do? Re-live excrutiating

Reinvention? Adaptation into

Chrysalis and wing?

Far be it fancy thus

To crawl, instead forge into

Distance, 

Dance!

Lover's Lot, this Knot

Flood of ocher,
Night enliven,
Flush awash, and
Render bantam skeptic flight
Of ever, solely Mine
Sanctioned moments at a time
In Focus, keen contrast,
But saline rinse to
Follow, kenned, soon, so
Mesmerize, meander thus
Entwined, for
Bait of Hera's blessing I am
Bound to covet,
Lost home, amnion,
Succor, hearth, and balm beseech.

And I

kissed, tasted
bliss
once and fell
and felt so strange
and flew

Serviette

wrinkle smoothed
as ink
swiftly jotted
melds, seeps in
steals and seals
heart to his,

barely brushed fingers
deft and done, sold
twined fates lit
in time, in light
in shining eyes

gentle flame

how decide
just bliss to find
in sips and wisps
of fortune, fame,
or each elusive gasp
of this?
how accept, unquestioned
drips and dribs or drabs of
keened, and keenly out-sought
adoration, care?
and how, or how again
magic find in
simple fact and faint
impression; gently, bright and
bended smile?

Spark

Rote, nor rhyme
Dare here intrude
Fancy's soaring race,
And stranger beasts
Ne'er hosted rave as this,
Atop fresh-bitter, breezy peak;
Or eye of catamount enchanted
Convulsion-plaited henna tresses
Float un-crimped, unhampered:
Jar assaulted, jolted, dropping down
Mine-shaft, mine unending,
Mine, oh mine for all time,
Grappled, tousled, twin-backed
Hydra, burn as slide, arch
Gasping, twining, flee this
Binding, rouse and burnish,
Banish, bearing bright aurora!
Sleep, my beauty, rest and
Conjure time again to rout
Suffuse away tepid, tormented
Torpor; douse, and scour
Perfidy scented eiderdown,
Anticipate less peace
Than ushered in.

The Art of Grace

Have I given, yet,
My all and everything?
Probe glimmers of taint,
Sleuth libations, 'thout
Thought of recompense, but ay,
Thirst for dregs of thy
Given,
Probe the depths
of offered.
Accept? Uneven
Compromise, but
Where the contact
Binding all to give?
Doubt allegiance,
Consort wanders;
Who begged whom
To stay?

Frival

Naught
It means to either, but
Cry! Side and skein
A battle 'sued, a thrall
Ball and chain smell
Twisted taut,
Leave, unthought, unnerve
But stay?
Ah, touch - just edge
of linger, crush'd evoked
To both alone.

Vestri Cupiditas?

Ever dreamed to be
My nightmare's villain?
Wake in cold sweat
Dread Sandman's beckon follow,
Sobbing swallow,
Drink to dim this,
Medicate away this
Past starvation, passed
Chance for resolution? Only
Cope and cope and cope again,
Or break with iron-will:
Fetal crumble, muffle,
Jerk in stifling, wail,
And finally, exhausted,
Sleep?
Ever dreamed to be
My darkest hollow?
Buried, best contained:
Strike wanton, only sometimes
Fresh and burn?
Scald, but cauterize,
Cast scar's neonate?
Just once more
Devastate?
Ever dreamed to
Full elicit Acheron,
Evoke, awake Gehenna's pit?
Banish, ransack hope as did
Neglect owned issue quake?

Rift

Sway, brought in by
Shiny smiles and
Promises:
A chain. You!
Place me here
Shame slathered - beautiful
Band-Aid in place,
Expect no repurcussive flight.
Shudder as I flee, emaciate,
Embrace the smog and rain,
Escape the Thumb of
Grace?

Cusp

At this juncture
Unify locale, or abrupt
Assunder sworn - a
Vocal tearing or
Manual mending
Touch, withdraw
Answer in shove or hold -
Become this day a
History of
Yea or Nae.

Eleven

Paralyze
This gout, o
Aragorn! Aloft unsheath
great Gilly's wrath and
Burn thy candle
Down in lemongrass
So sweet, such ache -
Toil on! Tho scars
Fade never, cut upon
This person rendered
Ever. Label made but,
Tom beseeching,
Undo this, my
Folly, on my way
Exposed by thy
Extended
Finger

Was I Really

Thus:
Fanatic to song, blight and shame?
Ridden, bound, and blamed
No contest?
Beg, kneel, weep to metamorphosize and
Fail, yet never hail to measure -
march, entreat, endeavor All to please,
Submit and be
Content with this?
Adept at this, accepting
This?
So broken, how
Re-rendered, set,
Kiln-fired to shine?
Selected nature theorized,
I crystallize, and wonder:
Trail satellite tails in
Spectacle, frame-bound
To terra, pine for sky, but none
So visible, ephemeral as this.
Symptomatic find, I am,
And was, and will, and on,
Yet somehow, days gone by
I was!

Cornucopia

And I have,
Juncture span - this breath,
A moment after each:
Breath of lily flower, shy
Gift of he I never
Would have deemed,
Have dared, align
My life beside.
And I have
Amity, awake,
Jowls' ivories
Away turn, flee.
And I have
Concord, both world and self
Applied, each taste the
Sweeter off my verdant
Vine, and I have
Mirth in élan;

As I reach and 

Take it, joy is

Mine!

Final Chapter

Try now, to rewrite
All pages gone, undo the done?
Alter feelings as, with effort bound,
These last few moments,
Gesture grand can take back
Stings, deceptions. Fault
Of mine,
It was! But wait until
Last call
To rectify, to purchase
Friendly drink;
Goodwill, going,
And gone.

Gift

To lift
Grasp
At straws, at all!
Frail motive find of
Will, or wit; oust
Clouded threads in thought
Of mind. Impulse so
Vague to bring, to wake. No!
Wait! Vertig now!
Los, las capsule break.
It's time. My greatest
Mystery to find,
Embrace! Float
Jagged-edge of conscious;
Flit.

Revisit

I ran away
Again
But not the same
Can mountain change,
Deepen hue and swell?
Glacial melt enable
Closing, distance,
Calm amid this flight
Un-terrified, despairing none?
Peace brought with,
Anon to be more
Found in canyon
There.