I keep running

Into the laugh of recognition

Exhaled from stained-glass faces

Caught against the fence of resignation

Time and time again bored stiff sweet

Sweet in intentions and imagination

But ruined from ever feeling pure hearted

As every method feels like any other

So message is on an eternal pause

Waiting for permission and inspiration

And the eagle watches and judges

Thinks everyone’s hateful

Never people-lovers

Never will they because feet are frozen

Thick in apathy

The product of the city

If only we weren’t so bothered by all

Oh the bother of everyone oh

The stuck make due and say

Community takes two weeks

I say what we all know about the artifice

There’s a long drive to the house

That was beautiful

In my head I see it

From time to time

White brick archway

Canopy of trees

Beams of light

And just enough time

To breathe in the summer

It’s kind of fate to leave you

With such a place

Where you can park by the lake

And sit and still your mind

And think I am happy here

You shouldn’t choose

To be thrown down

That flight of stairs

Not the one to the right

Because it’s too much too soon

It’s an ocean you move into slowly

So the water gets used to you

One body part at a time

It can’t be that which anyone dives into

Because there are too many bumps

Too many sharp corners

You will bruise so black

That every part of you

Will look like a sky a flutter

With black birds

Take the left if you must be thrown

The left is a lazy lay where everyone lies

Waiting for warmer linens

To soothe cool jade

Where there is no prince

And no penultimate.

There is only the last

In all its deceiving descending darks

So consider abandoning

The theater of the thrown

I’d very much like the likes of you

To try to clutch the right

I’d very much like the likes of you

To try the ease of ease

And let yourself be washed

Grease gravy

You can catch a glimmer

Of being

It was there at the table

A formidable unison

So meager that I

Having known nothing else

Have to strain to remember

Any other feature

Of the night

Of the meal

Just light

Table linens

The dark kitchen

And grease gravy

It was when being together

Wasn’t uneasy

Grease gravy

You can catch a glimmer

Of being

It was there at the table

A formidable unison

So meager that I

Having known nothing else

Have to strain to remember

Any other feature

Of the night

Of the meal

Just light

Table linens

The dark kitchen

And grease gravy

It was when being together

Wasn’t uneasy

Happiness is such a phase of the moon.

It’s a slight light on the face of something that always is.

Not visible to half the world at a time.

But not hard to believe

And if I could

I’d lasso that one wild bit

That you worked so hard to enjoy

As did I in my preoccupation

And I’d go back and finish

Exactly as you wished

Cause I don’t know what you saw

But I do believe you saw a possibility

Or at the very least, heard a siren

I worked at a bookstore

in a dream

That I had more than once

At different points

In my life

And the dreams mean nothing

I’m sure

So why so recurring

I stocked

Ran the register

Talked to coworkers

Then woke

Dumb dream in Tennessee

Dumb dream in Florida

Then Kansas City

So real

Those dreams

They are on my list

Of stupid stupid things

Back and forth

All I got

It’s difficult

Can’t want

Enough

Once you closed

Once you died

And I knew

And I felt

Robbed

Fast denied

Hand still hurts

Back and forth.

All I got

I hate this writing on the wall

As much as worms in rain

But I’ll sit down with you

At the end of March

And I’ll hope for the best

But you’ll jab

You’ll touch my face

You’ll push hard

You’ll connect the dots

You’ll be ugly at least

One good time

Because you can’t help yourself

You’ve just got to iron the crease

And make your point pronounced

That you still put your hands on me

Any time you want to

Tiger on the tree

Yellow and green

Beautiful wallpaper world

So so me

It is the best discovery

At the foothills

Guarded by Everyman

Oh hallowed ground

And white city

You are grand

Poor and rich neighbors

But beautiful blessed