all of a sudden passion suddenly

[annaswirls]

this is where it starts and this is how it happens
the foot slips from plywood
to fiberglass and packages fall
through
the pull down stairs
andI know this has happened to you
there are so many places with holes in their floors
we flal right through

you tell me
four months is a long time
to hold someone's attention

sounds like an accusation
like I were holding up a bank
or a sign
or a grudge

I did not try to catch the package
it was meant to fall
we are all meant to fall

 

[annaswirls]

I dont even dial the number anymore
you never answer
and I filled the pages of the journal
where I wrote your number down
I wrote it in the middle
when the pages were new
empty except you

but I wrote right through
something always makes me want to say
crackerjack time traveller and the
snoot with the longest vowel you can buy

this is not a poem
I dont even dial the number anymore
you never answer
what else is there to say?

 

[annaswirls]

it might not be the last request
then again it might
how to deny a man his last meal
his last rites
his last sniff at fertility

take a long suckle on my grapes of wrath my darling,
the air is dry
our throats are dry
we do not speak

teeth are not always cushioned with gums
last night mine crumbled again
as my jaw ldislocated and ground sideways
molars pulled from sockets
as I clench down tight onto your existence

It always happens that I nearly choke
and awaken wondering what this means

of course I know what it means
and so do you

 

[annaswirls]

there is a moment that coexists with memory of concrete days
and in the morning the sparks from my father's welding gun are visible through the floor length drapes.

under yellow blankets
floral patterns the sound of arc spark danger white light
flying in streak and ball and they told me not to watch
but the smoke rises over the balcony how can I resist.

I do not watch too long, the crankshaft
is silvered together
or some part

I sneak back silencing the creak or mother will hear
send me to the compost heap
that steams a cloud of morning

I wait for the sound of the tractor
wood splitter

coffee grounds that wait for mulch

 

[Man Ray]

A Lady of class!

To hear such a request from one such as you, a lady of class!

Especially sitting here in the woods on the warm sunlit grass,
enjoying a picnic, drinking expensive wine from a crystal glass.

Should I politely decline and inanely mumble, "Sorry, I'll pass!"
Or run away screaming, afraid it will become a messy farce!

But you know I can never refuse you, you a fine lady of class.
So I'll say "Yes!" to your request, "Please fuck me in the ass?"​

 

[cward2]

A Bitter Taste In The Mouth

I've burnt all the photos of you -
I couldn't take the memories anymore.

Everywhere I went I'd see your face,
in the puddles, in the sky, in the trees

Its distracting me from what I have to say
to you

can't you see ?
can't you see that I don't love you anymore?

stop telling me how you feel
stop

stop rearranging change
stop rearaanging thoughts in your head

can't you taste the coffee,
so bitter, so cold?

l

 

[Guest]

This darkness seaps deep
squeezing nerves
and making spirits feel
sleep is needed to heal
the sorry heart
but we will lighten life
with music sweet music
that makes the feet
feel free to dance
in the darkened world
that dormant buds may wake
and sleeping sap starts pulsing
to the rhythm spring
is only a few moons away.

 

[4degrees]

love sick still
manic aggression
and sexual pension
keeping me wishin'
to bottle my tension
throw'd into the ocean
with some lurking notion
that heavy rotation
without punctuation
like mass scarification
my bleeding protrusion
is not an illusion
my heart begs for fusion
with you.
indefinetly.

 

[champagne1982]

Ode To The Schitzophrenic

C'mere and chew on my psychosis
and drool upon my id
overdose on this disorder
like your older brother did.

Taste the phenobarbital
in the chicken stew
and study prosac patterns
as the monkeys study you.

The cage is kinda tarnished
the gilding's on the floor
but I know a personality's
on the shelf in the drug store.

Sell me self-control in capsules
if you would
and don't seduce the mental patient
like you know you could.

Soothe this tortured ego
assuage this burning guilt
that now I'm a male impersonator
because my granpa wore a kilt...

 

[Maria2394]

When Jenny wore red

Pa blamed the sunrise, when Jenny wore red.
The way the lines in her face turned
into rivers of what could have been
and spilled with fury, like a dam
bursting for want of a single smile,

One crevice ran sneaky, from left eye to ear,
not quite yet a crow's foot, every frown
and squint now browned
from forty-seven years spent baling
plowing, planting and praying for the harvest

beneath an unforgiving summer sun, rain
was both blessing and fearsome show,
twisting through tornado alley bringing
word of devastation in outlying towns,

and Jenny grew wrinkles from caring
when no one else was around,
and she draped the red dress
over her shoulders, and bared herself
to the flood-soaked land, and

the rain grew feet and ran screaming,
Oh Lord! away from the hayfield,
away from the garden, away from
years that were measured
by creases in Jenny's rugged face,
deeper than wounds, yet shallow
like an unplanned grave.

 

[annaswirls]

I do not know what this means
"our salad days"
but it seems I am always showing up a few days late
for the salad

 

[annaswirls]

like you said lover like you said
the white lace was artistic intuition
and modesty stretched over winter skin
baby I take your portion
sliced on a platter
I give it away give it away
give it away because
it means nothing to me

I read her poem
she said some ghosts write poetry to each other
she said
the messages in the river
were losing their clarity
and I remembered when the river spoke so clearly to me

nothing is unique
nothing is individual
nothing is sacred

tap our wires
open our legs
everyone is doctor
everyone is spy
don't worry little girl
we have seen it all before
we have heard it all before
relax
you will not feel a thing

 

[annaswirls]

did I write it did I dream it
the concentric circles on the wall
of the Biograph
measuring out coordinates
radiation level
flash
dead
2 days
long term
oh it depends on how the wind blows
how the wind blows if you are out past
the last ring but
you and me baby we are the lucky ones
stoned and watching the brothers quay
we dont know we are in love
but that is okay
our shadows will not have time
to be etched on the wall
the wall will be etched onto someplace else

you and me
together inside the first circle
down in dc
down in dc
you hold my hand
I wear your coat
like in the movies

and I pretend to be Nancy
to your Sid god when he picks up her panties
in the street
and breathes them in
how back then I did not understand
why why
and I tried it myself in your bathroom
leaned over
and breathed in my scent
until dizzyness overtook me
and I knew someday someone would want me so much
to carry me in their pocket
like a pack of mints

 

[cward2]

Sunset

I once had a love letter
infused with your scent
but its gone now, I burnt
it after seeing your words
melt into the sunset.

 

[annaswirls]

I do not want to sleep
while there are hours ahead
with nothing painted in
just the darkness of night and a crooked moon

anything is possible on this dark screen
what creations will be abandonened,
what still birth prophesy falls into truth
as I fall into sleep?

I dream in color.
but I write in nthese black keys
nothing comes for free,
who bears the pigment
if I sleep
if I sleep?

 

[4degrees]

meanings of words
an attempt to define
my deepest cut
my reddest passion
i'm forvever hung up
on the mental meat hook
that parting of the body and soul
a pristine execution of
willful intention
and lovely words
that make me yours
all over again
full circle, right back to the day
that i began again
with you.
always new.
always, you.

 

[tungtied2u]

come on baby, let's fuck
and say we're in love
pretend this urge to scratch
our primal itch is more
than instinct, in our genes

out of jeans, into bed
rutting like lust crazed rabbits
in our heads, passion intense
we find an excuse to use
each other, say we're lovers

then after a day, a week, a year
the fog begins to clear, the fear
of commitmernt begins to creep
back into our brains, back off
we tell ourselves, find safety

in solitude, in old patterns
so we return, to cells
we tried so hard to escape from
until, sitting alone we find
we've only fucked ourselves

again

 

[annaswirls]

it is more like love then craziness
soup bowls and aok floors
we dig deeper deeper
this goal this goal!

oh to trade in the close security of sand caving in
for another sunburn
feeling every breeze
grain
touch
water drop

again this is not a poem
this is what a poet does
when there is no poem

strike up the muse lets start another tune
one that rhymes with the meter of the day
if you got a collar wear it if you got
a collare wear it bitch me down
hips raised
leg raised
you my lover were raised for this
down at the river
down at the river
you watched them through the window
drunk and violent
backhand smack and legs forced back to the wall

I know she hit him back
yes you told me that
and still
the embrace
the cries of pleasure over hatred

sure you were raised for this
down on the river
with the hounds

if you got a collar wear it
and I will wear it
replay these scenes
until you get it right
until it sets right along the banks

your skin has grown white
and numb
under the cast
powder wont stop the itch

yes yes we can play it again
you goddamn motherfucker
and you will take it
take it until you grab my wrist
and the calls of waterfowl
sing us home

 

[RhymeFairy]

dreaming
... yes dreaming again
I saw you today
watched as the sunrise,
turned your eyes
into meadows of green
so
green. hazy moss
touched the corners
where they wrinkled
up into that smile,
that smile
for me. watched
as you flew away
into the sunset
leaving me
again ....

~~~~~~~~

morning clouds awaken me
with yawning pillows
spread,
for the loving
hotness has seeped, slid
down tingling thighs
tormenting this lover
with a morning wake up call.
whispering into embarrassed
red ears, echoing a memory
that keeps calling to me.
love awaits ... has waited,
an eternity it seems,
only to wait ... in vain.

 

[Guest]

Damn man, turn out that light
it hurts my eyes.

Don't you know the shine
colors my apathy?
I'd rather the lack of
thereof.

Living in dark hides the pain.

This is the way it is for me
It's how I like it
for now.

I have stuff to work through
where light doesn't
need to show the ugly
for me to know it's there.

Sometime when I'm ready
I'll get to it
until then, thank you,

but really, I know where
the switch is
and I know how to turn it on.

 

[4degrees]

a thousand pretty words
ten thousand pixils, picked through
showing that pretty part of you
and i'm easy, waiting, to see
clearest constellation
pieced together partical
an abstract you and me
i named a star once
shown through cloudy nights
clear as a firey diamond
darkness fades to warm grays
plush warmth of this
slowed down season
tis another reason
to remember the whisper
the breathy 'you are perfect'
the made up memory
and truest love i'll ever see.

 

[cward2]

I'm addicted to gasoline,
which flow like rivers of

black ink through my veins.
I like the sweet smell infecting

all the words that I write,
even something so simple

as I love you

 

[cward2]

The Spider And The Watchtower

The spider in the watchtower
knocks the belljar open, tumbling

out of the vaccuum, scrambling
down verdigris arms into the black

light where a thousand eyes are
waiting like a mosaic for the

damned

 

[Man Ray]

A photograph

I'm looking at a photograph
a photo of you
I'm trying to write a love poem
a poem to you

But I'm unable to write a poem
worthy of you
Because I'm lost in the photograph
of beautiful you​

​

 

[annaswirls]

she stretches like elastic
yes poet pulled over the boundries of days
we exist in the borders to the right of saturday
below the thirty first

there is room ther is room there is room enough
on this artists calendar we pencil in names
interchange-able dates with feathered acquaintences
and why not

down on the river today
I sent out an invitation
either the colors were to grey
with no splash of yellow for landing
or you are no longer interested in these family gatherings

I felt you had shifted four centimeters to the right
in my mind
as if the window of space and time

fuck that was stupid to write

window of space and time what the fuck

but you know what I mean,
the time for passage is past
perhaps when the daffodils return you will find yourself at home here again
and I will wait for your invitation this time

this is the time in the poem
to return to the original subject
and tie things together

open wide
baby
open wide