Poem – Page 28 – Poétique

Aftertaste

The difference is you want to kiss
That feeling of wanting this
Arousal and desires being met
Maybe something you would grasp
Onto and hold for only a minute
Like a stolen moment but the energy
Is what you feel internally
The decent into a smell
An aroma that fills the well of your soul
Knit to the fabric of the other person
As skin to skin draws you in
Hands holding fingers running through
Pulling slightly at the back of your neck
Into a tension that is right and the heat
Like the wet is exciting
It didn’t get here by any plan
Somehow arriving in the heart
In the fire of your lowest parts
Or the salt of this neck and sweat
And the light is cast down through a window
In the street where you found
A quiet second away from
Everything where no one was watching
And the taste of the inside of things
A swarming of tongues
The sensation is hard to explain
Perhaps never to return again
Except for in some fantasy in
Your mind that will live with you
For all time and the recall
Of this flavor that we somehow
Managed to create together
That we can always count on
To remember even if we
Never touch it again

Bassinet

Never forget what it took you
To get where you are today
He heard the crow say

Why did it feel like stealing moments?
Two thoughts in a basket
Exemplified as two
Newborn babies that weren’t
Predicted to make it
He rose in the morning to find
That there was still life in them yet

As he warmed them up
Bringing each of them back to life
He saw the differences in both eyes brighter
He envisioned a life for each thought

There were of course plots and
Many ploys on the outside to
Destroy their potentials but still
He managed to give them hope

Breathing it in
Warming them up

Even as winter settled in
And death dreamed curiously
Of taking yet another he continued
To feed and nurture his thoughts
Both again now like small
Children that would one day
Need bank accounts and
Someone to look after them

All of this moving along
Like smoke drifting in the air
From warm chimneys on cold
Mornings cheating the end
It was a kind of burglary
To grab on to something
That needed to be wanted
If it were to continue to exist

And if he did it without any hesitation
No opposition could refrain
Any one ability to embrace
Even thoughts and moments
That felt like they belonged
With and to no one

A robbery for the unwanted
Or brief considerations no one
Would remember to appreciate
Were safe to survive
Like an infant in his arms

Safe in the shelter of his keep

Plastique

The stars were out
The sky was pitch navy
An inexcusably audible voice
Came through me to
Make a wish when I realized
Plastic flowers never die

All backed up against the wall
Akimbo in the corner hot lights
Burning at the back of my neck
Sweat but not enough to quit

I made a wish to be like
Plastic flowers last night
I could be my own Brahma
Create myself in the form of an
Inflammable anima
Psyche made of steel
Look pretty all the time
Never withering to feel

Eternal and majestic
Like the fantasy in a fairytale
Where dragons and warlocks
Are just a part of the background
No need to achieve more
Because the summit has been reached
Frozen in color timeless shade
Hanging or basking in the
Inability to fade is remarkable

No reaction to actions friends
Have haplessly made
Nothing is ever personal it’s just
A part of the story that the world
With two moons has accepted
As fate in the triumph of
Letting go of the blood
If commitment like chlorophyll
Runs through the stems and the veins

I made a wish last night

Hiding

So what if we’re hiding beneath the sheets
I lost my zeal, maybe it’s back at the
Restaurant we were rendezvousing
Who knew, I’m still at the altar with you
My forehead on the ground
I don’t ever want to leave

Plowing through giving up to
What’s not for me is not for you
Then we say what we say
Free spirit but I cannot
If the ramp is closed
Stops signs are red
Salivating is dead

What’s up what’s down
Do you have eyes that work?
Talk less breathe more
When it gets slow
Open it

Can you hear our laughter
From across the courtyard?
When the sun goes under at four
Will you find more time to
Say what you mean and come clean
Most people don’t speak what they feel
I get why it’s hard to peel back the
Layers to display it vulnerably

Sometimes we say goodbye
But we have no choice if we said hello

Inevitably there are
A lot of leaves on the tree
Any one could drop

Peach clouds and whipped cream
It takes awhile to melt
But a slow burn feels good

Miracles

Can you reassure my mind
That it didn’t mean broken pieces
Of flint and petals in the wind

Miracles sing:
A window opened up
The breath of life cries
Over a hill to travel;
in a moment that will
Quickly be forgotten
Living with him, dying inside

A flute sings up
From downstairs travels
Into his ears and turns
Downward the heads of
Tiny blue flowers in the
Harmless garden
with jumping conclusions

Miracles song:
Many footsteps I have walked
Sun flares danced to
Flicker close to my fingers
Each digit
Hungry to feel powerful
But the energy is drained
Green eyes filled with tears

Chilling echoes
Everywhere reverberating,
Is there a prayer that could
Safely encircle us in protection?
His intelligence was flying away,
Pigeons were scattering
Screaming out loud
More than one day of peace

Then on his knees
Please he pleads
Must I lay prey to
Imprudent circumspection
No father to call to be had
No mother to pet his head

A miracle song
Is hiding under a blanket
Somewhere in the back room
Passing by the mirror in the
Vestibule to look one last time
He writes a fast note
On a piece of yellow paper
“Osmosis is my safety net.”

Diffusing carbon skin
What question could be asked?
All the walls were rattling
Inside crawling with spiders
Words on their backs,
It’s not your fault
You didn’t design life
While creating yours
Connect it to ours…

Meaningful to meaningless
Hand in hand
Instead of the same kind
Two fish swim away
I plant a heart on a rock
No more solving mysteries
Broken candles
Lights no one’s pathway

Giants

Guttural sounds came up from the ground
Bellowing out and roaring around
The rules of the planet are changing
And the stars are sending messages
To the mechanics of the underworld
Rearranging the shapes of the seeds
And the roots and the flowers of things

Giants that shake the earth from inside
The quakes and the rattles all the
Cracks that come out hold a message
Much longer and stronger and purer
Than tiny human ant like minds
That can only concentrate and
Conceptualise how to do surface
Level analysis unlike moving the tides
Of the oceanic atmosphere or shifting
Revolutions of the days on Mars
Neptune or Saturn as the universe
Has the strategy to do the rumbling
Continues to shatter and jangle
A plan for a future the flesh
Cannot wrangle considerations
For what we pretend to control
Makes laughter for the Gods
Like jelly on toast no more
Powerful than raking leaves

Push your pennies around
Make your constable proud
Do the things that you think
Are worth doing if paperwork
And recording your silly decrees
On differently colored notepads with
Stamps and seals ignite your appeals
Go ahead with this

For the atomic energy of a nuclear
Existence that catastrophically outweighs
The bureaucratic persistence beyond
Even the ideas and concepts of our
Minuscule minds can conjure has the capacity
Of that which no creature crawling
On dirt could predict and derelict
Is the actuality of any vital creation
Or essence to be of importance
When nature expresses her gift

Contending

There was a war going on tending
Over a peaceful land full of roses
That was once mostly fruits and vegetables
A small crop of edibles plentiful enough
Shared to produce and feed a few families
Though the garden was peaceful
And the caretakers loving the
Overseers that taxed the property
And issued all of their hear ye hear ye’s
Didn’t really care about what the
Land was for; looked like, whether it was
Beautiful or loved it was stone cold emotion
Most of the villagers living there
Played by their rules and paid
All their taxes and swept all their porches
But everyone was still putting up their
Precautionary dukes for fear that another
Battle would surely ensue left to endure
At any moment on any day the magistrate
Trumpet would blast and blare
Stridently a new proclamation to
Shake the knees of the humble town beware
And then the officials would all
Send their minions out somewhere else
To set tiny fires ablaze on someone else that collectively
Could effectively incinerate the hearts of
All the people who were just trying, crying
To live their lives right peacefully, civilly
And in harmony but there was no
Beautification or manifestation
That would aid the peppery proprietors from
Experiencing emotions of compassion
Attacks were practiced which would disrupt and
Enrage the sanctity of this precious plot
Inevitably on an outside space no one cared about
Before until someone finally did
And it became a war zone a rock to fight for
To be sparring on by tyrants who showed
No appreciation or gratitude for
What the village had become in self contributions
For it was not about the whole of
Humanity but the financial sum
Fuming inside the farmer pledged not to
Take it personal for his own mental reprieve

Imaginare

In love with the imaginary
Making the most love to anybody
I don’t even know…
I could swelter you with
Hot momentary pulsating
Delicious majestic lust
No harbor for hate
To dock our boats in

Standing in the traffic of a busy sidewalk
I plaster myself against the concrete wall
Behind me stands a bigger building
For stowing people away when they need
Rest and rejuvenation in their condos
Hardly affordable these days
What a lifestyle planted next to the water
People walking around barefoot
With sand on the bottoms of their feet
You could journey from here and achieve
That shoreline destination with ease

All the accents traveling around his head
Korean and Chinese spoken in the same
Breath from breakfast to sock shops
Fiery red hair passes by like an emblem
Something should be signaling his legs
To follow that embered light but he doesn’t know
Them at all and it isn’t his neighbor
But to make acquaintances would be nice

The fallen limbs from two days of rain
Are reminiscent of the unused well of
Love that’s been swallowed whole
Useless arms unclaimed and flailessly
Hanging around wanting to be useful
Like the branch that smacked down against
Raw concrete was to its tree prior

So many new faces and no one to
Be concerned about meeting who he
Hasn’t yet nor seen; no facial recognition
The ground is sloped and the air
Is calm here stands a quiet moment in a big
City this is a treasure like the fantasy
Hunt that keeps dragging his eyes
Into the cars from across the street
Enamourer to the unknown aphrodisia

Returner

I am the harbinger
For those around me I seek the message
To return with what happens outside
Of the village we live in Mon Dieu,
Je suis vieux, je commence à être aigri !
Says the man who cannot stay up
Past midnight or wakes up with
A dehydrated tongue and warm brain
Will he be lenient with himself he asks?
A debt of treason to behold yourself
On the shadows of your heart
Without the clever memory
Of recalling that we are not only
Our thoughts from today
We are also our memories of tomorrow
I woke up yesterday believing
There was one way to do things
But today feels like the body is
Vibrating at a different frequency
How are we surviving and in what color?

Curiously displaced he pushed his way
Out of the sadness and nothingness
Into the reason for continuing on
Without the pressure of something
Coming up behind him
Was it an echo effect of a past lover
Of the silhouette of some other
Emotion that was hanging in the air
From time spent in old bars
That had seen the life of writers like
Kerouac and Ginsberg?
If their ghosts were keeping him company
There was no need to disinvite them
Some say it was only the sun casting
Shadows on his back before the return

Junkyard Heart

People maurading through the streets
Every dance floor in the city
Has seen his feet seagulls cry
In morning light and ferris wheels
Are tempting stories of making out

We aren’t going anywhere
But we aren’t children anymore
The water is only one hundred
Feet away and the dream of
Remembering how to kiss a stranger
Is an easy one to stake

In the tree there were so many birds
Small and large tiny ones too
I was chasing insects up the bark
To feed them all when I noticed
That their size was comparable to
Some of the smallest fledglings
At first I was nervous that
The bugs might score but then
I witnessed the birds enjoying one bite
After the other they were winning!
Had it never occurred to me
However that everyone needs to eat?

The wharf was kind of perfect on
Mornings like these observing
All the wildlife filling up their gullets
With a cool drink of rainwater
While nothing stopped the harbor,
Ever pressing courageous sensitivity
Was showing up at every corner of his heart
Starting from the north point

There was evidence of a struggle inside
But the gentleman driving the vessel
Hadn’t quite given up on the want for
And desire to abridge his destiny in love
When his brain came to it was
A waking life of friendly misbehaving
That enticed a little memory of adventure
Something he never quite gave up on
But somehow lost sight of in his masonry
To build a safe home inside his heart