tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53189438154211487712024-03-05T00:20:15.086-08:00Three Little Things<i>three little things stop me writing ... three little things drive me mad ... three little things keep me sane</i>Aconitum-Napellushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254131650339669501noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-14998360746075137262012-12-04T10:42:00.000-08:002012-12-04T10:42:00.775-08:00Continental DriftI tried my hand at a sestina...<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
suppose you call this time fall.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">It’s
always autumn to me. Your alien mind</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">likes
to speak in a distorted tongue.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">And
when we see the spinning leaves</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">drifting
down an eggshell sky</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
catch oak, and your hands are empty.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>There
half the houses stand empty</i>,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">you
say as you watch rain fall.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>There
the world is bigger than the sky,</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>with
room for my restless mind.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
know you pine for maple leaves,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">for
bittersweet syrup on your tongue.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">The
words are waiting to leave your tongue.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">This
land is small and your heart is empty.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>That’s
why everyone ups and leaves.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>This
place is paradise after the fall,</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>There
you can be naked. No one would mind,</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>no
one would see you bare yourself to the sky</i>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Through
the window is my perfect sky,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">the
places that come easy to my tongue,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>If
we left maybe no one would mind</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>but
me,</i> I say. <i>But if your land is empty</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>who
would catch me in your wondrous fall?</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><i>If
your land is perfect, what fool leaves?</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">One
day I will weave from leaves</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">a
tapestry of your autumn sky.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">We’ll
go where poplar and maple leaves fall,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">where
every red and amber seems a tongue</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">of
flame, and where the world is empty</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">and
gives space to your fragile mind.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps
after a time I would not mind</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">my
future in a place where everyone leaves</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">but
you and me, where the world stands empty</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">but
for us. <i>I’d give you my entire Eastern sky.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Words
slip easily from your honeyed tongue</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">and
I think, after all, that I may fall.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
cannot mind your perfect pale blue sky,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">your
autumn leaves, your ever altered tongue,</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
make me </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">fall. With you, I am
not empty.</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-55946756728972808192012-11-08T10:57:00.003-08:002012-11-08T11:00:10.222-08:00Drift (Collected Poetry)A collection of my poetry is <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/a-l-reynolds/drift-collected-poems/paperback/product-20384167.html">now available online.</a> 128 pages of poetry inspired by my children, current events, the questioning of religion, geology, Darwinism and 1960s television. :-)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-59935485479343121282012-10-10T12:39:00.000-07:002012-10-10T12:39:05.154-07:00On Washing Up on an Autumn Day<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elbow deep, water warm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a squeak to ceramic,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a smooth slip, soap and cloth,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and fingers pink with work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eyes on the sky through glass,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on elder offering berries to birds,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on rain washed grass, and terry towelling</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hung as a surrender to life and love.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the thought in your mind,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
open like palms held to the sun,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that the water and soap, the berries</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the translucent sky, are no less you</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
than flesh and bone. The air in your throat</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
no less you than birds uplifted by wind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The world begins at your feeling fingers,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a Möbius strip in your hands.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-82434346754655993162012-08-22T09:07:00.002-07:002012-08-22T09:07:27.342-07:00A Whelk, Perhaps<br />
I shall draw myself further in,<br />
safe in these whorls. No feelers<br />
feeling. No fronds out-turned.<br />
A whelk, perhaps. Invertebrate.<br />
Safe in myself with my eyes closed,<br />
head drawn in, curved to the<br />
contours of this calcification.<br />
No man is an island, entire of himself.<br />
But I can eke out the neck of<br />
this peninsula. I can huddle like rock,<br />
my spine an archipelago, undiscovered.<br />
I can stay like a soft thing, washed<br />
by waves, moved by eternal currents,<br />
but always held. Always safe<br />
in Fibonacci’s constant. Curved in,<br />
and blind, and alive in my mind.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-47479741804845510122012-07-12T14:51:00.002-07:002012-07-12T14:51:39.223-07:00How The Shale Feels<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know how the shale feels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That thin drifted piece, naked</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in a pool of beach-cracked rock.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know how each grain of </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
windswept waveswept sand</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
rubs a little and rubs again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know the effaced (un)importance</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of the bedrock we press underfoot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How it will not bend, but slowly erode.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How it will never bend, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but only <i>snap</i> once
the scouring</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
is scoured enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know you, you pressed out slab</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of mud, once-alive remnant of </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a time before, who teamed with microbe life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know that soft, soft weight of years,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that suffocating sleep</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that slowly turns slip to stone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then the voice saying, <i>We</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>will sit here. The
tide’s on the turn.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Let us sit here and
watch the slow sunset.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>A good place to sit.</i>
And the hand</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that touches the slab, small now, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
scoured to thinness, feels the heat </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
of the day and the smoothness to the palm</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and thinks nothing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I know how the shale feels.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-57305543849001578712012-06-16T09:53:00.000-07:002012-06-16T09:53:10.804-07:00Isn’t There A Fanatic Somewhere In All Of Us?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is it with you people?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You, who stand with your heads above the mist,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you with your Easter Island faces,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
turned to the here and now, outward looking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I, here I am, elsewhere.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I balance on my straw raft,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
float toward the horizon,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sea brine seeping past my toes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my delirium </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I seek fresh water in the depths</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and see monochrome men,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the lingering smoke of cigarettes,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the watch inturned and the hands adept.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Somewhere I lie with my face downturned,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my hands downstretched, catching</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
currents that left the shore decades past.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I couldn’t be happy in bobby socks</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and outspread skirts. But.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I will stand in the shadow by the dance hall wall.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will watch them spin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will watch the play of muscle under skin,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the lucid eyes and the dark ones.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will watch the sleek wet cling of cotton,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
grained on film and left when life was vital.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can look through the sheer water</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and dream of the oxygen beneath the depths.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And dive, and dive again, and bring back pearls.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-23637707104674188682012-06-15T03:18:00.004-07:002012-06-15T03:19:55.953-07:00On Passing Her in the Street<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Today we almost met.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You with your walnut heart,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">your hatchet-blade face sharp-edged</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">straight on.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Today I realised how deep and wide</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is the void between atoms.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">How each of us is an emptiness,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">each a spinning solar system,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">more vacuum than dust.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Today I saw how even if I shouted</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">loud across that crackling void,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">my words would slip between electrons</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and fall, useless and unheard.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">We none of us are really here,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and if I prised – or prized? – </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">your walnut heart there would,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">there would, be substance there –</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">but nothing to my taste. Nothing</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">but gall to my tongue.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I think, instead, I will hold facts close.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">That each cell has its nucleus.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">That each atom holds hands only with its kin.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">That sometimes we can only speak</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to those who speak back</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">in our own tongue.</span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-3168136208569945352012-01-21T16:27:00.000-08:002012-01-21T16:27:19.477-08:00On Moles On The Fence At NeboWe saw your soldiers’ ranks, your <br />
desecrated corpses. We saw you<br />
hung, sleek, one by one,<br />
a dirge on a your own stave.<br />
You were such small trophies, <br />
so small, each one. Each one<br />
a glove of dark, smooth silk.<br />
Each one a sorrow of its own,<br />
head height to our child’s eyes.<br />
There was no triumph in this conquest.<br />
No triumph in your sad spade hands,<br />
your aborted tails or quiet eyes.<br />
<br />
Now I imagine Goldsworthy meeting Hirst.<br />
Then only sadness in a wind-struck place.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-28881793008891927342012-01-15T15:21:00.001-08:002012-01-15T15:21:59.268-08:00The SmokerWe will take it from the exhale.<br />
A single drift, a caress of your lips<br />
and the soft pass of silk that billows.<br />
The bloom of orgasm widening in the air.<br />
Your lips part in the afterthought of a kiss.<br />
The afterthought of all that is in you<br />
widening in the air.<br />
<br />
There is a dilation inside you.<br />
Your pupils become pools,<br />
your lungs expand. And <br />
your shoulders fall, the strength<br />
at bay. Your chair is an oyster, <br />
your chair a resting place. Your head<br />
tilts back and smoke rises. It is<br />
no signal of distress, no call to arms,<br />
but an incense for your peace.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-79492311379089362562012-01-09T06:52:00.000-08:002012-01-09T06:52:16.152-08:00Milky Way<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">It is on days like this that I drink too much tea</div><div class="MsoNormal">and create a whirlpool of my stomach as the lactose settles,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and all you can say is <i>uhuh, guhuh,</i> your nakedness an entirety</div><div class="MsoNormal">and a subtle threat of chaos to be unleashed.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Half the world is out of your reach, your up-stretched hands</div><div class="MsoNormal">starfish, seekers, your palms maps that have not yet been written.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You describe the world as <i>guhuh</i>, and I drink tea and find </div><div class="MsoNormal">a galaxy threaded inside, an opening of my thoughts,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a settling of my tired eyes and star after star to string for you.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It will be years before you can understand. Astronomy. Navigation.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Myth. Hydrogen blazing in spheres and atoms out of reach.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now you are a mountain climber, a daredevil. You can say, <i>a-gone</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You would toss away your yolk-yellow duck and reach for</div><div class="MsoNormal">handles, books, and dip your bread in daddy’s tea and suck the liquor.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You would toss aside anything that does not suit, a king kong in the city</div><div class="MsoNormal">and your starfish hands would settle only on the inappropriate.</div><div class="MsoNormal">your havoc is mellowed with honey. The curtains are a forest,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a hideout and a shield, and I sit with my tea, and no place to hide.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-89471727369938698202011-12-16T10:12:00.000-08:002011-12-16T10:12:09.015-08:00Depths<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I lie more still than a corpse, deep down,</div><div class="MsoNormal">swaddled in peat, its face a tannin mask</div><div class="MsoNormal">shrunken to expose teeth. Eyes lost and staring.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A nose that flares for an anaerobic balm.</div><div class="MsoNormal">If my neck were noosed I could not be more still,</div><div class="MsoNormal">if my sacrifice had been made, my hands curled.</div><div class="MsoNormal">If I lay for two thousand years in this soft bed</div><div class="MsoNormal">pressed upon by peat above, pressed by peat below,</div><div class="MsoNormal">with all torment dead and passed away,</div><div class="MsoNormal">I could not be more still and calm.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I could not matter less. The bog bottoms</div><div class="MsoNormal">are a place of calm. A place of sleep.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-72320491073015378702011-11-11T02:00:00.000-08:002011-11-11T02:00:06.475-08:00Remembrance<i>Lest we forget,</i> they said.<br />
And not just forget the men in the mud,<br />
but the men who found air and sea as treacherous,<br />
and those who guided them down safe paths,<br />
and those who shot, and those shot at.<br />
And not just the men,<br />
but the women who worked, and the women who waited,<br />
and the men and the women who died at home,<br />
sheltering in places that were not shelter enough.<br />
<i>Two sleeping children at Glebe Farm.</i><br />
Those tiny, single losses, blossoming into a field.<br />
No race, nor homeland, nor gender matters in death.<br />
<i>Lest we forget</i>, they said.<br />
And not just those who died, but those who are living still,<br />
and those who are fighting still,<br />
and those who are still waiting at home, with hope clenched in their hands,<br />
and those who were left behind.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-18795540887848114962011-10-27T06:28:00.001-07:002011-10-27T06:28:56.106-07:00Of Hades and Other GodsIt is a beautiful, clear day, and -<br />
sometimes this Hydra has no head,<br />
has no Achilles' heel.<br />
The street lamps steal light from the sun<br />
but cannot compare in brightness.<br />
They are a whimper in daylight.<br />
A whimper is my mind.<br />
Helios rules us all.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-68857539217995172042011-10-22T02:52:00.000-07:002011-10-22T02:52:12.088-07:00ConchI would curl tight in my conch shell<br />
and ignore their feelers and blind, feeling eyes.<br />
I would curl so tight that my atoms would condense.<br />
I would be an ammonite, tight on the ocean floor,<br />
unfound until <i>split </i>by a geologist’s hammer.<br />
I would be a fossil, shelved, doubtful as Darwin,<br />
silent as the grave, and tight, so tight,<br />
and trust would be a nonsense word,<br />
and faith no more than letters arranged in a press,<br />
and for all their instruments they would say no more,<br />
than, <i>this is a fossil. We will let it rest.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-44153640708446203802011-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:002011-09-29T15:02:17.028-07:00Heat<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1}"><span class="messageBody translationEligibleUserMessage" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Indian summer, </span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">heat pressing down on the world. </span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Still sky, still air. Obsessions and</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">jackdaws calling and the sun </span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">slipping through the curtains.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">And even when the sun slips </span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">away the heat smothers still.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><i style="font-weight: normal;">Thank god they’re asleep</i><span style="font-weight: normal;">, we say.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><i style="font-weight: normal;">Thank god they’re asleep.</i><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Their breathing after dark in the thick air,</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">bodies naked, curled like Inca mummies.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Their skin stifled by sweat.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">My hands won’t stroke.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Three children, Russian dolls, equalled in sleep.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">We’re not the only ones who were fools.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Peace settles in this afterlife.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">The television is a crackle, the only thing that moves.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">We try to glean a draught through windows agape.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="font-weight: normal;">We try to glean a harvest from the dark.</span></span><br />
</span></h6>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-77139938440990748172011-09-24T09:18:00.000-07:002011-09-24T09:18:32.302-07:00Some Time Before DinnerYou cry. My head a ringing place.<br />
Your face a freeze-frame of outraged red.<br />
We walk and waltz and you hiccough with tears.<br />
<br />
My body is a besieged land,<br />
defences breached and the headquarters<br />
inhabited by music.<br />
<br />
In my head I am riding to Juneau.<br />
In my head a strong man, arms like fortress walls,<br />
holding me hard against his solid ribs.<br />
<br />
My waltzing does not amuse you.<br />
My tuneless singing I cannot hear.<br />
I don’t know the words, the drums are a heartbeat.<br />
<br />
Your hot hands cling still.<br />
Your hands entrenched, scaling the walls.<br />
You may conquer me yet, but my mind is lost.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-63008034699291227582011-09-20T16:01:00.001-07:002011-09-20T16:01:23.847-07:00Seven, Until Eight<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">We slip upstairs, into the half-light dark,</div><div class="MsoNormal">leaving the tadpoles playing in their pool.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Time to be together, to shade the lights.</div><div class="MsoNormal">My patience is a skeleton leaf, each vein</div><div class="MsoNormal">frayed. I pray for peace. The Middle East</div><div class="MsoNormal">has nothing on you. And I lie while</div><div class="MsoNormal">you walk the floor, and drink, and milk</div><div class="MsoNormal">hangs at the corners of your lips. Outside</div><div class="MsoNormal">the sky is aflame. The neighbours fight quietly.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Inside nothing but your feet on the floor,</div><div class="MsoNormal">your experiments with sounds,</div><div class="MsoNormal">your mouth a new toy. Outside the </div><div class="MsoNormal">deepening dusk as day gives way</div><div class="MsoNormal">to shadowed hills. You cannot fight.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You fall like an old soldier,</div><div class="MsoNormal">surrendered to the hours, at last.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-77992095226735434472011-09-19T12:58:00.001-07:002011-09-19T12:58:54.177-07:00Fifty Minutes, Without AdvertsExercise is good for depression. Picking out words with poetry. Watching people move on the screen. Sleeping baby giving a surrender with his nerveless arms.<br />
<br />
Deep breaths make light work of pain. On the screen they are spying and cycling, long ago but vivid. Actors are writers, writers act.<br />
<br />
Doctors sometimes tell the truth. Eat red peppers and tomatoes. That may work.<br />
<br />
Brain stutters. Baby's hands twitch. Don't wake yet. Don't wake. Let me watch my silver-hearted screen. Intrigue and the tiny movements of eyes. Six foot three and broad shoulders.<br />
<br />
He is awake. Milk on his lips. Tiny yearling sounds. You would be surprised by what is in my heart.<br />
<br />
He nests like a bird in the crook of my legs. Tumbles back into sleep. Sweet, hot breaths, short and fast. How will I roast a chicken by five?<br />
<br />
The credits roll.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-12941679854707920912011-08-09T13:55:00.001-07:002011-08-09T13:59:22.668-07:00Of Virginia Woolf<div class="MsoNormal">You filled your pockets with stones,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a seed-sower sowing nothing,</div><div class="MsoNormal">nothing to cast away.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
It must have been cold as you went down.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The bite of March water</div><div class="MsoNormal">must have brought blood</div><div class="MsoNormal">rushing in panic to your skin.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A gasp, perhaps, </div><div class="MsoNormal">as your chest submerged.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(Were you beyond gasping?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Were you so far behind the veil?)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And then the silence.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The hiss of water against the ears,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the stirred up mud against your startled eyes.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The water cold in your palms</div><div class="MsoNormal">and cold in your unravelling hair</div><div class="MsoNormal">and cold through your clothes</div><div class="MsoNormal">to your naked skin. And</div><div class="MsoNormal">the weight inside would hold you, </div><div class="MsoNormal">stronger than stones.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You stood, perhaps, for a time,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a naiad in the depths,</div><div class="MsoNormal">hair taken with the flow</div><div class="MsoNormal">until you sank full-faced and weary</div><div class="MsoNormal">into the soft silt bed.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-53322458375231419272011-08-01T16:27:00.001-07:002011-08-01T16:29:09.010-07:00Hung<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal">By night I climb the scaffold.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Step, step, metallic uncertainty,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the slip-threat hanging, torch swaying, </div><div class="MsoNormal">an angler-fish bait hovering in the thickened air.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Its pool hits grass and rough-stoned walls.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Its pool hits slate, each square a sheaf pressed hard by time,</div><div class="MsoNormal">layering the roof, book-like, each a story in itself.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By night I settle my back on planks elevated</div><div class="MsoNormal">to greatness, a lifeboat up high,</div><div class="MsoNormal">mortar dust skimming my clothes.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Cold pins me down, bone-deep, empty.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I settle and stare, plunging deep to the world above,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the night sky a pool, a clarity hanging still,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a vertigo waiting to happen. Each star</div><div class="MsoNormal">a point of magnitude too great, too small,</div><div class="MsoNormal">to be believed. Each star caught, still,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a point in a scatter of billions, billions</div><div class="MsoNormal">of miles between us, too profound</div><div class="MsoNormal">to be likened to mundane things.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ice-cold, they seem, remote and frozen</div><div class="MsoNormal">but each a maelstrom in itself, watching,</div><div class="MsoNormal">glitter-eyed, white-hot.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I think that making love in this</div><div class="MsoNormal">cold thin air, high up, pressed by stars,</div><div class="MsoNormal">pressed by scaffold boards powdered with mortar,</div><div class="MsoNormal">would be an explosive thing. It would</div><div class="MsoNormal">be a tumbling on the edge, quick, cold,</div><div class="MsoNormal">vital, once-in-a-lifetime. Impossible.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-31806658086452149562011-07-19T15:40:00.000-07:002011-07-19T15:40:10.129-07:00National Savings and Investments<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">You saved</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Monte-Carlo tickets in a leather case,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the reminder of Princess Grace, and</div><div class="MsoNormal"> your hurried, graceful attire.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You saved old man’s beard</div><div class="MsoNormal">as a memory of the time in summer</div><div class="MsoNormal">when afternoon turns to evening</div><div class="MsoNormal">and he kissed your hair from behind</div><div class="MsoNormal">and tucked fallen leaves behind your ear.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You saved the four-leaved clover</div><div class="MsoNormal">you found as a girl and </div><div class="MsoNormal">tucked away in a papier-mâché egg,</div><div class="MsoNormal">in those days when whimsies were made of paper</div><div class="MsoNormal">(and you saved the luck that it brought).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You saved </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">your grandmother’s tea-set,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and your father’s quicksilver sketches.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You saved the privation of your upbringing</div><div class="MsoNormal">in your bones and in your way </div><div class="MsoNormal">of squeezing the last from every foil tube</div><div class="MsoNormal">and neatly rolling the end, snail-shelled and tight.</div><div class="MsoNormal">You saved the memory of heat rising,</div><div class="MsoNormal">tarmac-scented, from damp Cardiff streets,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and saved the light where sky touches sea</div><div class="MsoNormal">in the irides of your eyes. Even near the end,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the light shone back. Even near the end,</div><div class="MsoNormal">all these things were saved, in you.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-32561830144402836942011-07-02T16:22:00.000-07:002011-07-03T11:33:02.683-07:00Night Migration<div class="MsoNormal">Walking through the darkness,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a cotton ghost,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a blind-bird stick figure,</div><div class="MsoNormal">arms raised like the hopeful come for healing.</div><div class="MsoNormal">No light to guide you. No light at all.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The night is a softness that sucks in sound.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The night is a translucent cloth that allows in air</div><div class="MsoNormal">but not certainty. Not faith.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The carpet beneath your feet,</div><div class="MsoNormal">moth-furred beneath your shuffling toes.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The wall sudden. Hard against shoulder, hip, thigh.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The paper’s pattern turned to something cold.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The plaster unyielding behind thin skin,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the plaster all you feel, cold all the way down,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and the skin meaningless.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Your skin meaningless. The thud of your heart</div><div class="MsoNormal">and the slow, short intakes of breath</div><div class="MsoNormal">and the bones beneath your skin</div><div class="MsoNormal">all that you are.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Until you reach the ark of light.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Until you reach an island, and fall,</div><div class="MsoNormal">safe in my sleeping arms.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-33437698855609995752011-05-21T06:27:00.000-07:002011-05-21T06:27:52.976-07:00A Manual for Growing Poppies<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal">Who would have thought mud</div><div class="MsoNormal">could be so heavy?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Every step an accretion,</div><div class="MsoNormal">a bracket fungus bracketing boot leather</div><div class="MsoNormal">in hollow homage to Mercury’s wings.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Every step a drag.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow here,</i> they say.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow,</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>lovers of bones flaked clean of their skin.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Fertiliser, we become.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Icarus is in the skies, falling in flames.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Icarus and lead, kissing,</div><div class="MsoNormal">out of their elements both.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Icarus falling in flames,</div><div class="MsoNormal">bringing heat to the lowly,</div><div class="MsoNormal">seeding the ground with metal.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow in the churned up soil.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow,</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>strong in our decanted blood.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies cleave to disturbed soil.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The almanac is open at the seventy-second page.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The seeds should be sprinkled on freshly dug soil</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is an expensive excavation.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This should not be.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ack-ack traces the constellations.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ack-ack lights wires between the stars,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and Icarus plunges in shame,</div><div class="MsoNormal">shedding limbs like feathers to fertilise the earth,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the smell of earth and blood and kerosene to keep us alive,</div><div class="MsoNormal">the fires to dry the mud a little, the fires to cremate the dead.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow here</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The living six foot deep</div><div class="MsoNormal">the dead sprinkled like seeds on freshly dug soil.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow here</i>, they say.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Poppies will grow.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-30441591476384350652011-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:002011-05-19T13:08:19.164-07:00The Plate<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--><div class="MsoNormal">Even peas were a deadly enemy.</div><div class="MsoNormal">How could that be?</div><div class="MsoNormal">You crushed them, one by one,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bugs under your fingernail,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Threats to be obliterated,</div><div class="MsoNormal">One by one,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like the counting of an abacus</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like the ticking off of boxes,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Like the annihilation of an enemy race.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A slow calorie count,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Of calories unconsumed.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5318943815421148771.post-59191299112610940052011-05-02T08:48:00.001-07:002011-05-02T08:51:56.491-07:00At Heart, We Are Chemical<div class="MsoNormal">We spin,</div><div class="MsoNormal">each nucleotide a handshake,</div><div class="MsoNormal">an irresistible cohesion.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
We are made of lovers, clinging tight.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bindweed. Smaller than bindweed,</div><div class="MsoNormal">more close, more compact.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>If you were a universe</i>, he said,</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Each of my planets would circle your stars.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If I were a universe, my heart would be bigger.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I would be able to encompass hate without a twitch.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
If I were to dissect myself,</div><div class="MsoNormal">and lay out my soul in a periodic table,</div><div class="MsoNormal">each square tablet would be a letter from home.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
Each square tablet would hold a solar system</div><div class="MsoNormal">of electrons waltzing about their nucleus,</div><div class="MsoNormal">like lovers unbearably held apart.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A Mormon love, perhaps.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>If you were stardust, dull as sand </i>(he said)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>I would love you just the same.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0