conspiracy

off script and eyes wild;
the crowd can’t tell which
catastrophes were planned –
they pick the option
known and mild –
and claim it the work
of some careful hand.

as with the wind

the fires lurch and sputter
as the kites mutter, then soar;
the ships trace their
graces on the water,
sails full and gentle –
and the blossoms bow in the trees
and, a-flurry, rip free
how strange,
the same wind
kills some
and lifts others.

spindly

stretch and strain
towards the light
lose the heft
lose the might –
let the hope
& let the glimpse
thin your neck
until you list;
until you tilt –
until you fall –
and learn there was
no light at all.

down the street

Your best friend ever is
undiscovered – but
they grew up down the street;
may have a cousin and a girlfriend
who went to the same school –
may have passed you once or twice on
the highway
or caught your eye in the grocery store –
your best friend ever may
not say hello until you’re both 60 –
maybe you’ll go into business together.
Who knows?
Nothing is ever settled.

the old god

is fiercer than love and
older than jesus;
yes, older than
fire flicking from the heavens
and hands digging up
the cool dense rock;
seeing form and worth and
devising rite to
transubstantiate metal
into labor and back;
ha, yes, the old god
laughed itself secular –
sees the worshippers
falsely supplicating at many altars:
and yet, and yet,
at every counter they
flash the old sign
in modern ways
and the act
gives them sustenance.

troubadours

town to dale to city with song
singing bright, sound and strong,
some find rhythm in their love
others hold love out of rhythm;
neither is right; neither is wrong –
learn to sing,
then play along.

everything to little excess

an unnecessary pump of shampoo –
a smidge of extra detergent
(per the company’s instruction)
the gilt and lie
of nickel and dime
the constant slide
of too much too often;
the little excess of the everyday –
how it piles,
how it
drains and drains until
there’s nothing left.

gray mass

Michelangelo made great content
and so does the US Army;
The Content is raining from the sky and
gathering in the corn-roots of America;
Content in the oceans,
choking all the little fishes;
Content in the cities
piling high until it stinks;
we are the great content
put upon this Earth
in the image of the Creator;
with knife-nick and
camera-clack,
we make our content
one bloodbath at a time.

first warm day

first warm day and
everyone goes crazy –
kids threatening in the streets.
parents growling, cursing,
crashing into cars parked on the shoulder –
first warm day and
everyone goes crazy
the life in them greening up and
flaring in the heat –
first warm day and
everyone goes crazy –
finally,
finally,
they have the energy for it.

Excess Sprouts

what unnoticed cruelty
to lovingly plant so many seeds
and
finding too many sprouts –
too much life
coaxed from the shells of stasis –
to gather the tender green shoots and
chuck ”em in the dumpster.