2010

No

I asked for my life as it should have been.
God said no.
I could not bring myself to ask again.
What a curse to be
what could have been.

Foregone

I have loved and loved too much
and lost my mind and my peace
and my heart and my soul and my mind
and not one of you
has more than me.

night

cold and hard, like a
little piece of money. yes,
she has never a

rats

the constant gnawing
sense of having had and lost
some infinite thing

pide

proportions of milk to coffee
to wire to silk to wool...
negrita, por favor
con cabello de caballo

Dem bones

This is death:
the dead stand up
when the rest lie down.

Beloved,

Says the storm on the tree:

Root to tip,
sap to bark,
skin
and twisting branches.

The sun reduces
her dropped fruit
to syrup when I go.

Lead

Misfortune follows,
and steps in her own steps
round and round,
and wears a hole in the ground.

Homecoming

Welcome again to the world of clay!
We pray you never leave again,
pray that you enjoy your stay.
Vacation bills are due, my dear.
They’re there, by the desk, in the chair.
Pay later and now, pay what we may.
Please stay.

Joined

Your hands, toes,
feet more perfect than hands,
arms fit in shoulders
and legs in hips
dismember me when you displace
your hands, feet,
shoulders.

Waters

Small truths are clear
truths unfathomable

Bitch

My soul goes her own way.
She beats me when I stray,
and chains me to our home.

Tears

Is it sin to push opium
into the mouth of suffering?

If he dies, then no;
but we all die.

Bloom

Love is abandon
unfolding enthusiasms

Fodder

Man is grass;
make me a reed filled with music.

Bare

My soul has put off her adornments,
taking no pride in decoration.
Ornaments would come between us,
and their jingling mar our peace.

The dawn is dark

Faith is the soul’s defiance,
the bird that sings while the dawn is dark.

Slurp

Gratitude, the beast,
threatens to consume ego
with a sucking sound.

Hurt

We just need the world
to know we can bring a world
of hurt to the world.

Water

I believe this is
water. I believe this is
water. I believe

Pater

Home is now Homeland.
When finally the Father-
land arrives, please leave.

Burb

the exuberance
of freshly painted exur-
ban America