The Gravity

Surrender to gravity
she said
as I savasannaaaahed
upon my towel
mind wandering to that
old friend
that irresistable friend
that makes surrender
effortless

When I was young
gravity and I were not
friends
we were never on the same side
I wanted to go
up
to grow
up
to stay
up
but my parents
and their gravity
wanted me to lay
down
to get
down
and warned me I might fall
down

As I got older
gravity began to teach me
lessons I didn’t want to learn
lessons about flying
and falling out of trees

We go way back
gravity and me
it still has
a hold
on me

more and more
toward the center
of me
and down through
my feet
planted now
tree posing
I am a tree
complete
with monkey
mind

Ode to the Rollin’

It’s never quite and always almost
the glass half and that other grass
like Mick I
just can’t get no
perspective on
the relativity of satisfaction
like Mick I’m
always almost taking it
never quite by the tongue
I’ve got the moves
like Mick but not the swagger
like a stone
I’m just too heavy
to roll.

Hong Kong Coffee

Open wide your heart
your arms
open wide your arms
embrace me
hold me close
hold me tight
hold me close
in your wide
in your wide
and open
heart

I can hear you
love
in his voice
I can hear you
he loves me
he loves me
from a coffee shop
in Hong Kong
he loves me
across the wide
across the wide
across the wide
world

fragile explosion

just like that
you hook and drag me
by my heart
into the dark

bastard
bastard with bared teeth
grin or grimace
the difference doesn’t matter
in the dark

you hand yourself over
a careless toss
that we didn’t ask for
or expect
we don’t even know what we’ve got here
are you fragile
thin-shelled
will you crack in our hands
if we try too hard
to keep you safe
maybe you are just
patient destruction
biding your time in a trojan shell
the calculated pin
has already fallen out
and all that remains
is the blame

Twinkle Thud

You open your mouth
and words do spill out
but they only splash on me
make a mess

Those words that come out
of that big gaping
hole
don’t get very far
as words go

Those words you spill forth
are for your ears
I think
they kind of hang
around your head
kinda twinkle
kinda makin’ you look
sorta special
until they fall to the ground
kinda
thud

Those words you bother to
give
only take time from me
only make a mess of me
only almost had me believing
you were giving me
some kinda
you

Open your mouth
I need to understand…
Is it a faucet or a drain?

Those girls I knew once…

those girls I knew once
they walked in shoes
they flip-flopped
clacked
and danced
they drank
and laughed
and rescued each other
whether rescue was something they wanted
or not

those girls I knew once
cried together too
for each other
for love
for estrangement
for too much of each other
and not enough

those girls I knew once
floated and lolled about
on Sundays
under palm trees
eating drunken spaghetti
and washing it down with
whatever that was
talking about inappropriate
bananas
cucumbers
whatever that was
she could do things
and that’s what mattered

hey remember
wipe-gate?
that mattered too
especially when you do it
wrong

those girls I knew once
had something or other to do with
Marines
or not
with bartenders
or not
with shots
and shots
and shots
or water

those girls I knew once
could have had a group discount on
some serious
counseling, man
but we only ever finally went
one by one
we were each other’s
counsel
when I knew those girls once

I’m all better now
but I still flip-flop
clack
and dance
and
I want to know those girls
again

Terra not so Firma

clouds beneath my feet
turn into starlight
and I am floating
just now
floating off into places
and heights only whispered about before
to me
in my dreamiest
floatiest
dreams

tonight I danced
on my tippy toes
with my fiance
my dream boat ridiculous fiance
six foot plus
blue eyed
that hugh grant accent thing he’s had since birth
and those blue eyes aren’t just blue
they are magical
seeing only the best
always the best
in me
impossible I thought
but now I know
he’s true
and I’m a believer

Here Is Neither

When I say
I am here
for you
My here is neither
here
nor there

I know that I am truly
here
when here is neither
there
nor
there
One there being
within
and the other there
without

For even when I am
“over here”
I am indicating a without place
and the indicating originates
from within

It is only
when
that solitary
eternal moment
of being
here
only when here transforms my withins to withouts
that unbounded
openly
freely
limitless
altogethernessness
all-encompassing without enclosing
betweenessness
of transformation in simultaneous stillness
the being and the becoming at once
only
then
is my hereness
perfectly neither.