remembrance
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I’ve been everywhere Once I was litheStrong limbs that leapt and pirouettedLook at my dancer’s feet I wanted to go everywhere Detoured by reckless loveOnly got in trouble for my troublesLook I was beginning to show I was known everywhere Above the fold bold headlinesTo a footnote in a plywood trunkLook what’s become of me
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I wish I never let goUnder the flicker of fluorescentsHalf-drunk coffee, stillborn dreams tucked into my desktop blotter On another deskBright ink-filled journalsCircular stories traipse into the etherJust out of reach Always a hands breadth awayOr a lifetime behindWhat would I beIf I never let go
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Days are a blinkthe weeks Tilt A Whirl faster and fasterand with a thundering of hooves the months dash by Frentic years click awayeach accelerant decade races uicker than the one beforemy life burns in a comet’s tail Time thickens whenfaced with a handful of sandy loamlaced between thick glossy leaves pulling warm taffy breathsstillness
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The car door slams. A headache sizzles at my temples. One hand drums angrily on the steering wheels. One child is whining while the other’s long thin legs pound the passenger seat’s back. I’m forgetting something, something important. Loading the trunk I unpack my brain. Traveling with children is like decamping a circus, I think
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The mouth says nothingInsipid, tame creatureSmiling apologies all day The ears are uselessSuperfluous ornamentsThey can’t even shield No we are every emotionEvery intrusive thought under lids like the flicking of a cat’s tail, peaceful or livid, look and learn We are a blink from cryingThe windows to this soulstare into us then glance away We
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So I waitfor the bell to ringfor the door to knock They come at nightmaskedin gaggles of three or four So I waitnot with lovely homemade browniesor mini tubes of toothpasteI’ve learned the hard truth of shiny red apples They come this rainy nightIn gloomy garish garbsWith sunshiny faces under umbrellas so I waitIn my
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FireRed and russet brownBright as black letters against white Twirling towards blacktopCascading from an autumn burnt boughTiny as this stanza Carry me in your palmLike a phrase that catches alightIn your memory Press me between beloved versesAnd I promise to flutter outOne afternoon Brittle yet still fire redA poem to Fall
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Tell me you’re soberThat you’ll come home tonightTell me I don’t have to worryAnd everything is getting better Deep and raw edgedBelow my sternumTo right above my navelLies a hole Inside I will place your cardboard reassurancesNext to the photo of the life I’d thought you’d have Of course you’re cleanTell me not to worryas
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The grey strip of asphalt slips beneath meA satin edged endless blanketSide to sideMy tires sway gentle as pillows And I am a punch drunk sailorSailing into the familiar unfamiliarWarm to woozyRumple wide alert tumble fast asleep Repeat in a rock-the-cradle rhythmSlow weaving buffeted by metal chariotsSpeed to slumberDream streaming home
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Dead at the centerA cigar box grand edificeChrome shined relic drownedBy zeros and ones I walk these burnt umber tilesUnder the blueness of fluorescentsThrough jungles of dumb canesTip-toeing around ghosts of Orange Julius From big boxes half emptyPast shadow boxes of retail pastSide stepping kiosk eruptions,Searching (no I don’t want a shoe shine)Questing (gummy grapefruit
circular staircase 