Two Stray Cats make Love On Academy Street

She crawled into his window
Out of the night
And found him standing under
dim lights of the hallway
Like a bear with a sunken, heaving chest
Sloped shoulders,
A swollen face
Sidled up against him,
Purring
Curling the cool and the evening off
in rolls.
He too tired for reluctance received her
Moods fluctuating dark and light, swelling patterns
of rage and reserve
In his shoulders
Under his claws
In his yawn

He carried her to the bedroom
All the time the purring
Pulling beads of sweat and fear
From his skin
She said
I need money to travel to Seattle
I gotta see my family
When he put her on the bed and
Kissed her to hush the voice
Sat, looked to the floor
And back to her
I am a man of little to no resources
And it felt like a verse
from the Upanishads
And she wanted his heart
That she could see breathing under
that sunken chest
Placed a hand against it’s beating
Wanted
To put it through him, squeeze out
The ventricles.

What he dreaded was
That she would kiss him
And that if she did it
Would last all night,
The kissing
And he
Wouldn’t be able to
Punch though the walls
The glasses in the sink
The bookshelves
radios
plates
faces
Everything around him eating him
The Sanguine,
The one pure emotion
To know
In this place, in this room
Stars tattooed to the ceiling
Glow in the dark
Books thrown everywhere
The thought of touching blamelessness
Tearing at its underpinnings
Or just
Through her and
Through again, not even making love
Just putting something
Somewhere
For someone to keep
Because he couldn’t hold it anymore

She eased the resistance out
Of his chest with kisses, rubbing warm limbs
Underneath splendid ancient need
Collapsing into itself, swallowing itself
And becoming gone.
When once again, like a stranger,
She crawled out, into the world.

Nothing left for him.
The smell of sex left to him.
The memory and
The ghosts crawling through
The austere solitudes of
morning.

July 2008

Mephistopheles

She sat in the bathtub reading
And me in the doorway of
the bathroom outside
Cloaked by the night over my shoulder.

The white tiles where they’d come loose
from walking
Erupted a sandal brown
And slate blue rugs strewn
like victims of the mine attack.
But from within.

Silence between us.
The plaster is loosening in the
heat coming off of the water.

Were I to step one foot of mortar and flame,
To push aside a melting plastic silver curtain
falling down,
Curl a lock in my hand,
Strike the sand-glass painting of a rock,
Take in the scent of her armpits rage as my desire,
The balance in between the sink and
its last drop of water
Would give way to a Miles Davis crying
godhead.

But nature is always perfect, an orange or
an orgasm, I imagine.
And the horns on the back of my neck wont
leave the outside be.


Spring 2008

April Flowers

Her body
dripping
Wets you from the womb of the month
Itself a period
unexplored.
You cant see people through
the Heavy downpour.

April’s grays go
more each year.
She douses, this time,
Just your fingers
and your hand -
Reaching for May’s
warm, dark
nipples, a line out of the deluge.

The shower
drips on
your shoulder blades when
you turn your back.
Making the suggestion
of the shadow
of the presence
of small wings,
Waning in strength as
they
flitter,
Working to
propel you into the
Summer heat.

You’ve been dreaming now, for quite some time,
of reattaching April’s hymen,
Remaking her -
Oneness.
The summer months only are learning
to forget her more and more -
Until you recreate time without her -
And again become sweat.
and smell –
and sound.


Spring 2008

The Poet and the Harness (Song In Progress)

13 centuries stealing and telling
I know the harness, the bit, the steel
Came from the tone, the verve, the trill
It was hooking me from the inside

13 centuries blue in the face
Counting off experience's taste
And telling the mountains
To look away from my face
Until I wrote it on paper
And then it was real

13 centuries tracing the lines of her face
Where I saw in the stars a hint of her chin
And was reminded that
I was born of ego and heartbreak
And bowed on the perimeters
And picked up my pen


8/2/2008

Raven (A song in progress)

I'm sitting
Thinking about ways to
commit suicide
Turning the lights on then off
in my house
Moving in the dark
Then I
Look out the window
For the great big bird in
the sky
And he is flying
Oh my god
He is flying
And his wings engulf the world
And his face is the raven's
And my nose bleeds
And drips in the alley below

Somewhere there's an up
for all this down
Streaming a happiness unforgettable
and like no other
To some lucky soul
Looking at a sun in a good place
Till you eat me down
Drink me down
I'll flow like this
And forever if I have to
I have to not
Have the courage to
slit my wrist
Bring in metaphors to
Alter the list
Because I'm made of body
Made of pain
And teeth and unhappy children

Somewhere if you
Get this calling
Come and raise me up
Giant bird
Soaring flightless in flight
Bother no one
Take me in my sleep
while I'm breathing heavy

8/2/2008