all of a sudden passion suddenly

[SeattleRain]

take it to the bridge
James Brown the hardest working man in show biz
and I say
Jump back!
Wanna kiss myself!

and I promise to write something every day
keep the momentum
rolling rolling rolling
crush all distractions in the way
even without direction least you are moving
see
and then when something comes along and you for once
have something to say
you will be able to just jump on that bus
because it is already moving

used to be I caould at least make up some nonsense or other
give the illusion of having something to say
this blue eyed gladiator I swear has two muscles
in his arm that do not exist in modern man
and I wonder who added them,
Disney or China?


yesterday I thought I had an idea
but I was mistaken

 

[SeattleRain]

the problem is I am not in love

not falling or head over heels or
lost but clawing my way out
out
out of it
come on baby
let me go, I swear
I will stop before running away
to give you a hand up

we are suffocating

 

[RhymeFairy]

suffocating
a slow burning death
that grips the lungs
tears at the heart
and regurgitates
a living on spent
love.

~~~~~~


the eyes can be deceived
but the heart can tell
knows when that embering flame
has whippled to an all consuming
low. a far sighted future calls
out, asking to be shown
like a rerun
the heart has known
felt the deep chill
of what has been
and what shall be
over
over again. it cannot
be tricked
or convinced
the needle has been pricked
all that is left
is the blood letting ...

 

[Tzara]

30-3-9

Punt now I golf balls
cross the new-mown lawn,

flat impertinent
verdurous dream. Yeah,

picture licit highs--
nitrogenic clouds,

sharp spikes of phosphate,
that sweet oxide salt,

potassium. Drunk,
snorted, leached, inhaled.

God so green is good.
Good. So green is God.

 

[vampiredust]

The pavement cracked
when he fell, shattering
it into a million pieces
of slate-grey cookie dough.
People walked by, picking
up his dirtied clothing, others
looked behind half-drawn
curtains, stopping only
to glimpse at themselves
lying on the floor.

 

[vampiredust]

A Domestic Scene

Parents chat on other
sides of the table, eyes
ignoring the children
chasing invisible cats,
wrestling gorillas, screaming
for time to hurry up. A baby
suckles on his mothers teet,
copying the signature left
behind by the eldest with its
newborn fingers, but nobody
notices.

 

[vampiredust]

Dorothy And The Tin Man

She unstitched my iron
suit with her fingers,
removing every panel
with fingertips made
out of glass. I lay down
and watched my gears
slowly freeze, every atom
beating as my heart
started to synch with hers.

 

[SeattleRain]

he pulled apart his cheeks
with both hands and leaned over
"Mommy, did I do a good job?"

Yes sweetheart,
you just missed a tiny little bit
let me help you

I wipe the brown half moon
that rises over his crack
we wash our hands in the sink.

he pulls the curtain closed
needing privacy to change into his bathing suit
my breasts sag
I know my turn is coming again
someone will lift my legs
tell me what a mess I have made

 

[vampiredust]

Rhubarb And Custard

The ruhubarb would always
be prepared first, that was
mother's way. She'd trim
the bleached pink stalks,
cutting off the sawn off
ends, leaving them to boil.
Custard always followed. Some
days it would be perfect,
other times it would not.
Pimples always burst through
its wrinkled skin, hissing
as it announced itself. I
would never wait for it to cool,
that was never my way with anything.

 

[vampiredust]

Eyes peer at me from
underneath the canvas
tongue, the six eyelets
on the head staring, never
stopping. She takes off
the cap and cradles her
child, her cap-dog still
silently growling as they
leave the bus.

 

[vampiredust]

When I Was Six

A puddle of newspapers
lies strewn across the bus
floor. The bus jolts and a fish
leaps out of a page, nobody
notices this but me and my
invisible friend called Bob. We,
I mean I, try to tell mother
but she's busy flirting with a guy
whose not daddy; teasing
his popeye t-shirt with the Marilyn
printed on her shoulder bag.
The bus jolts again and the fish
somersaults in the air before diving
back into the page, I want to go
but I know I won't be able to breathe
there.

 

[Maria2394]

I was teh one that knew the garden
would soon be aborted, it was
a fruitless endeavor, my digging
gettig out of hand, always hoping
for one bloom or another
in aperfect spot, the sun just so
stones laid low to stem the spring
floods, when they bothered to come

my fingers planted those sprouts
the same fingers, powered by frustration
dug them up, they get no new soil
there is no time, it is inbetween for us both now

them in pots, me waiting in this shell
teh wind grabs and shakes, forces me to realize
that garden is not mine, was not, will n ever be agaibn
but here I am, the maniac with teh trowel
that digs and prods, abortion on demand
returning my azaleas to at least my own
eye sight, I have roots and will travel

they are short roots though, and stay thristy
they are hardy roots and stay strong
when I remember the water
and for some reason, I just dont want to
remember the water
not today, just not today

 

[Maria2394]

conversation with teh garden about moving away

why should I feel this anger
directed at no one, aimed internally
I want to shake the clouds and release
every tear I shared with God

give them back, all of them, I do not cry

I want to forget that I lived
there, and there and oh yes, there
but every minute spent leaves amark
some we cannot see and others just grow
and swell and become a monstrosity
that must be killed upon remembering
but what do I kill? every minute spent

sowing seeds and baking birthday cakes?
whose fault, no ones fault, shit happens
but I wrote my best poem there
had my best sex there, laughed with my mother
smoked pot with my father

i miss my little place, I wanted to die
but she called me back, just one more time
to tell me

I can grow without you, now YOU go
you grow, and write and laugh
your memories are your own garden that must be shared
like sunflowers you placed in your fathers coffin
plant another dogwood for your mom
she willunderstand, everyone understands
but you, selfsh gardener

everyone but you

 

[Tzara]

Pity

Here, robins race
over a broad green field.

Robins here trace
worms digging underground.

Robins embrace
as birds often do, chaste

or not. Robin's
chased. I am unrenowned.

 

[wildsweetone]

there's sunshine today,
a lull between storm
and surrender to elements
uncontrolled, wild flashes
that are nailed in your eyes.
a temporary lull
designed to cajole and tease
to pretend and play
and flay bared bones
from their comfort zone.

...

 

[vampiredust]

Mother lets the rain
leap on her tongue,
dissolving the taste
of yesterday. It runs
through her hair like
a million kayak teams
charging down a rolling
river, never crashing,
just a smooth course...

...off the balcony edge

 

[annaswirls]

with neither camera nor pen
I try to memorize the detail
how my first thought was that the object
between the talons of the blue jay
must have been some kind of fruit
or seed pod because these birds
while bossy
do not fit into my construction of "killer"

newly hatched, feathers still wet
its head hands lifeless to one side of the branch
feet on the other as the jay
picks through the tender strands
feather and wing fall until there is nothing left
and the jay flies away

the sparrow family c ontinues to scold
and scramble
as if there was something it could do


and I have not found any significance
nor tie to my life
walking the dog on the way to pick up my car

I know he overcharged me
I know there was work done
that did not need to be done
but I do not even try
just smile and flirt and pay
goddamn, I think they send Gary out front
because the ladies cannot say no
I mean jesus, look at him,
would you?

 

[vampiredust]

What Can I Say?

I sat with your eulogy
on the bus, watching
people flick open umbrellas
as they walked along
the square. That reminded
me of the things we used
to do, those times when we
would walk along Little Venice
watching the canalboats
moored up together like rows
of sardines. We loved to walk
in the rain, watching it form
cobblestones as it fell, there
was something hypnotic, as if I had seen
how your future would end and mine
would begin.

 

[vampiredust]

Orchid

Vanilla tendrils unroll
as if to hiss and spit
out acid. A B-Movie
in disguise, always
wanting to be made
but that never happens.

 

[vampiredust]

We take our pills at precisely 9.30 am,
mine for vanity, hers for health. Swallowing
them down, I can hear them rolling down
into my guts, ready to be processed
by the bureaucrat running my head.

 

[TheRainMan]

In the Country of the Mind the Dream is King

i still write you letters. i just don’t mail them
anymore. that is how i spend my day,
cramming envelopes you’ll never see
into shoeboxes. sometimes,
when my hand is cramped and the rain
is hard enough to resemble me, hard enough
for me to look for something that might float,
i open one. and between sneezes, i spread
the fan mail on my lap and pretend
they were written to and not by me,
that i’m the idol, not the junkie. but even then,
rowing to nowhere, i know these crowded papers,
the cracks that widen and yellow cast, are nothing
but what i am, condensed—my only truth—

if I had my way, i'd tell you to take a flying leap
at the moon. but that won’t happen,
because we never have our way, do we.
instead, i'll admit i can never write you words
that couldn’t have been written by any other man,
and add that to my growing list of disappointments.
and when i come out unbalanced at morning,
dragging my dreams like a bad leg,
the parliament of neighbors will gather and whisper
sadly, and nod when i wave and say everything’s
just fine and dandy. when they see my lamp on
well into the night, they wonder but don’t know
what i’m doing—pen out, the wishes stubborn,
my lone reality. what i’m searching for,
of course, does not exist—this habit
has drained me into an emptiness. lies
might not seem like the least of evils,
but they’re certainly the most acceptable—
and i brittle in the lonely moments, find myself
waiting for the woman you were
to drive by and see my window lit at midnight,
and come to the door. and when you kiss me there,
your mouth moves like it’s your one true thing.

 

[sugarmountain]

spread your legs
rest your frame upon them
stretch the canvas firmly
secure with tacks driven deep
into sides,top and bottom

paint a picture of the past
be true to memory and emotion
mix together colors, raw and bold
hold brush in hand, stroke
as the moment moves you

in actions short and quick,
soft and slow, the tale will grow
in intensity and detail
see how little you remember
of the way things were

 

[Willows_Tears]

why do we try so hard

to stay away


I hear my own lecture in your words
you cannot have it both ways
no

you want to lift me with your pedastal arms
magnify my body
into your landscape
thighs and knees become mountains of the sea
your fire pours down like lava
modesty fingers over navel become
your centerpiece you weave this lovers fable
if laurel had leaves to spare
you would place me there
and tell me
rest
rest my lover rest
let me suckle you to sleep
oh if you want me there
take me
send me silver rings and silk stockings
or do mistresses get something new now
was it stanley yes, stanley
do you buy her silk, perhaps,
and gold

but that is not
where I was going
not the price of metal
not the sun and the moon
but yes
the sun and the moon

because lover
if you want me to be your moon
you cannot hold me through the day
you cannot hold me at all









you cannot have both


you want me love and admiration
and the whole of Corinthians
matching patterns and

or

you want this

I am too shy to write what it is you want of me
shy or private this is what you do
you make me want to keep it for you
keep it for you
keep it for you
because you are what I desire
you are what I desire
not for poetry
not for art
not for inspiration
I can write the clit fucking
god loving your press and hold into all of the open parts of me
to any tune they call
allamande left
grapevine twist
tell me how you want it lover do you want it like this

but no this is what you do to me
you make me not want to share

 

[sugarmountain]

I have taken to falling
asleep at all hours, I awaken
to the sounds of bed springs squeaking
or newborn birds cheeping
in distress in the dark
faster and faster
louder and louder

I rise
fix myself some hot chocolate
smoke a cigarette
wait for silence
write a poem
head back to bed

what else can I do?

 

[vampiredust]

A plague
hit me last night. I know
this because I found craters
all over my body, the remains
of the microscopic meteorites
still bubbling under the skin.