Saturday, November 19, 2022

Salt

 


Photo, Aaron Draper


Sometimes I stare at a window

or a door, trying to make out

the phantoms that stalk it.

 

Do I think I can decipher 

the missing glass

if I look hard enough?

 

But... have I ever told you?

 

I have never told you about

the time I heard your voice

like a blunt knife twisting in my vitals

whispering to someone 

something I had asked you

to hold tightly inside you.

 

Something to be kept sacred,

moist with blood and tears—

my relic, and yours.

 

And I always thought you innocent.

How speechless my disbelief!

 

But I heard the manic 

thunder of transgression,

as if from an impending storm.

 

And I felt the window quake shamelessly

before it swung wide open and

s.h.a.t.t.e.r.e.d.

at the sin

yes, the sin

of it all!

 

My eyes splintered when the question

Do I know you?

swept in like a sinuous hurricane.

 

I could not hold it back.

I could not banish it like I wanted to.

 

I could not separate it from the vacant,

keening face of that window.

 

I could not keep it from wanting to

kidnap me from you.

 

So I angled,

delivering my body to its voice,

 

And I caved,

wearing my crown of jagged glass,

 

And I surrendered,

wordlessly, letting it carry me away.

 

Like a bent sail rocking in a restless tide.

 

Like a fragile vessel filled to the brim with

the evidence of your crime.

 

Like a sunken statue, stone cold,

bristling with submission,

sworn to infernal silence.


Sunday, October 25, 2020

Transcend


Art by Roger Guetta

sometimes my voice leans into me and says 

i need to tell you something

it no longer wishes to belong to me

or to anyone else

but to flee

can you understand?

to fly away 

rising against the wind

impaling the sky 

circling the stars

slicing through orthodox chambers

ascending

transcending

beyond hope 

beyond impossibility

 

sometimes i you don’t dare desire

what did you say?

desire

you don’t dare

i desire desire

oh, how you do dare!

let it thread its way through my veins 

 

your blood 

 

i desire desire

 

let it rise

 

let it flare

let it flame

 

immeasurable

bold

igniting everything in my wake


Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Fierce Equanimity

Art by Leonor Fini

I know what I need.
Now . . . and . . . Now.
That is what matters!

Confusion doesn’t bother me. 
So, why do I travel the hazy unknown 
while gripping onto false assurances of certainty?

I dream of taking to sea in a seamless vessel,
grazing the fusion of water and sky and 
breathing in the ocean’s immensity.

Yet, I linger in the covert spaces
between beginning and ending,
between purpose and goal.

I resolve.
I journey. 
I flee. A random body on a premeditated ferry.

Where am I going?

Desire unlocks promises of consummation.
I wander inside my imagination.
I lose count of the hours,        
the days, the years.

Flight. 
Oh, and fantasy!

Come, now! Be present.
A shadow stalks the horizon.
A clock ticks on a cloud.

Here 
And now,
Time flees indignantly.

But, Oh, deceitful spirit, I say.
Beware! I, too, am insolence.
And, I am sovereign.

And, I am risen 
from this false dreamyours, 
not mine!

Friday, February 22, 2019

Confluence

Art by Dan-Ah Kim


I cannot tell you how or why.
I am sitting here in love 
with life and the world. 

Beyond.
Something else emerges. 
As if darkness were meeting light.

a ripple in one space resonates
throughout eternity

What are the parameters of
these false boundaries? What
am I too terrified to unleash?

Once again, my rapture
stretches out in every direction.
I falter… 
for one moment.
                            And.
                                     Tumble.

Wait.
I know what you’re thinking.

Don’t make assumptions.
Don’t say a word.

Just stay.
Bear witness.

Watch me tether
myself firmly to this ground.