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?

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

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

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.