throat chakra

it's not a noise but a silence
a wave gathering its skirts
let's not waste our time here
building castles out of sand
though it can't be understood
by the butcher we'll bleat out
our lamb song

see, he overcomes his fear

the very form informed by fear

far from distant deeps or skies
the humble horse lays his teeth
to the gentle summer's grass
while his ears attend its rustling.
hulking eyes search each view
foreseeing just that predator.
his feet made hard by the flight.

we marvel at his power
but he does not believe in it.
subjugated by the arrogant whip
or by love,
he carries his master into battle.

false children's stories

alas, there is no magic that can turn a person human.

and another thing:
mermaids do have legs, they are just bound up.
by the scales.
and we can breathe air, it just
hurts.

prescience of dawn

where was the tiny restaurant i first tried chirashi
the lights were blue and the waitress apologized
so many times i felt sorry and left the biggest tip.
they didn't check i.d. so we had japanese beers.

i keep thinking how ungrateful i have been because
i have lived such a beautiful life without any success
that i could claim for myself.  at the time i never saw
how gentle i would end up becoming, truly.
how could you, who saw it all along, have missed
the broken pieces hiding in my manufactured chaos.
you should have known i couldn't give it up, nope.
in my elegant clothes i can only be confident in the
irony.

nope

wrapped in a towel
naked and dripping
onto the hardwood,
sitting in the room
that used to be mine
in my parents' house.

my sister gretchen
is having a girl.
the shower's today,
and i'm wondering
why nobody likes
confessional pomes.

not even i like them.

untitled

in morning before alarms

before the sunrise.

that solid sense of darkness -

God's hands pressing down

on the filmy barrier

between our tiny

universe or whatever

and His complete one -

that's the feeling that i get

looking at you now.

the tight and velvet embrace

erupting from a

distant relative's flapping

fat arms. and kisses

from her avon lipstick lips.

her powder perfume

flooding each nasal corner.

finally her eyes

just like all the other eyes

incalculable.

fearfully and wonderfully

made from spare parts.