the year so far

isn't it great the way time never calls when it gets in its head the urge to drop out of view for a year or two?

anyway.

***

i. adoxography

you make me miss the days when rending wings was just one of those things expected of a boy. i want to rediscover that insects have no lungs, to arrogate their spiracles and never fill. there's a twinkle of an instar between the rasp of nymphalidae and august creeping down my neck: tonight we'll be scintillating objects--bend light and blaze like a symphony of tarred sarcophagi.


ii. this scrivener's got more rhymes than a nursery full of goslings


iii. a toast to the groom

i fit your bedroom with tresses of lilac
that glow like the wax in your smile
a perennial sunrise
that keeps us from waking
so long as your lips stay sealed

do you

remember the texture of carmine?
the rarefied air of our lungs?
vermilion trysts
cerise ellipses
like breath
eclipsed
as we ran

gas-

-ping meet me down
by the pier my love
as midnight vaults the horizon
and there you'll hear
my answer dear
sweet as the call of a siren

i've plucked out my hair and i've
trimmed down my nails
i've stolen a suit and a tie
my shoes are dark mirrors
my teeth are pristine
and i am ready to lie

but my pores are leaking our secrets
like cinnamon kerosene my
goodbye is the snicker of flint
as its flicker enlivens
our monochrome
dream

while you're tiding
on the pier my dear
scanning our love's horizon
soon you'll hear
the answer clear-
-ly borne on the wail of sirens


iv.

i'm not through winter
ing all these hints of spring are
little agonies


v.

your smile is a mudslide that climbs like the tide
a vise that bears fruit when its mandibles grind
oh darling please hum me a new lullaby
before you and quiet and i

***

something about blue

i.
she dissects piquant
airs precisely as ices
lattice her iris


ii.
this a rested heart
invites passion that bites like
slivered lazurite


iii.
come hurricane and
hail as your sister regales us
diaphanous notes


iv.
i taste your name in
phases of the moon hanged by
sleep and minor keys

***

amateurgress

i am learning now
to yelp and yowl and tread streams
of ersatz ivory


~~~


i sleep in drifts of thunder
i pave a ragged road
that don't abide no stasis
you know i gotta roam

a vagabond entranced me
long before i knew my name
it took two wombs to birth me
i've got rambling in my veins

i've seen the bars you've staked in
if you think they can hold me you're mistaken
the only reason that i'm shakin girl

is that you sleep like fervid thunder
ride me ragged as a road
every step you take impels me
yeah they say i've got to go

though this mountain air's dissembling
i can finally taste the lie
ya ain't no amalthea
your ambrosia don't satisfy

i've been drinkin the nectar you leave me
believing you can deceive me
but even milwaukee's gutters taste sweeter when

i'm enervated thunder and i
toil a ragged road
with soles welting from looks that trill
"you're welcome here no more"

it ain't like i ain't never had nowhere to go before
it ain't like i ain't never had nowhere to go before
it ain't like i ain't never had nowhere to go before
it ain't like i ain't never had nowhere to go before

i summon rifts of thunder i
submerge that ragged road each
step it pulls me under these days
drowning feels like home


~~~


the tintinabularium rings like the skin of dominicans sippin july with lime n a twist of deliverance.


~~~


valentina sargent was a russet of a girl
with graphite lips, mounded hips
and cheeks as round as pearls
when she danced
the balance of
the world began to hurtle toward
the alleys, halls and toilet stalls
lord what a lovely girl!

she caught my eye one evening
with a sequined pleather vest
it's no surprise i'm now half blind
should've seen how well i bled
she offered me my drinks for free
and i woke up in her bed
was there any girl so generous
as valentina s?

we married on a wednesday with
a heartbeat in her gut i
panicked but
we're catholic and
you've seen granddaddy's guns
i cried like iced tea on a summer porch
and blamed it on the sun
while valentina drank i drank
we drank and drank and drank

valentina joined a convent on
our second anniversary
it's been seven years since i've seen her
now she's here to stay
woe will turn this whiskey into wine
as i pour it o'er her grave
but i gotta say
your auntie
she's looking mighty fine today!


~~~


the sun is snow-born
the clouds a veil of owls that
skate empyrean

***

grace

when i hear that sound // i tremble and tumble to the ground
my spine it snakes and heaves // a chain of sea-swept leaves
but we can raise the weary // we'll stand again and again and again
just keep me off of my knees // oh^oh->

and as we carry on you'll learn // through troubles toils and snares
to turn their sorrow into feathers // all this world's worries will lift from our shoulders

that when you're near
i never hurt

when you hear that sound // when you hear that sound
your eyes they fill with wine // behind that honeyed rime
and we can ease the thirsty // who flag along this scalding road
just put your hand in mine // [we'll quell] this [desert] tide

and as we pass this cup i'll learn // pass this cup and learn
to turn their yearning into water // bright and shining as the sun

that when i'm near you never hurt
quite like before

when we hear that sound // [and/we fear] [we'll never] be found
how our heart does swell // (there's) no sea can hold us now
so we can light the lonely // with waves of vibrance and grace
who've fallen under its spell // we'll your shield and portion be

and as our voices rise we'll learn
to turn their hollows into wellsprings
that when we sing we never hurt

quite like before