Company, Companion

So don't tell me
you've been sitting there
all this time
looking at dust mice
by the rag rug
I meant to clean up later
but thinking about space
is hard with the virus
hanging around just
hanging around

messing up my thoughts
plus my thighs and all
knees and ankles

Were they ever working
this poorly before
even up and down
the stairwells
in Deady?

--those nights
with a spray bottle
of 65 plus the extension mop
whatever it was called
all those months ago

These Days

These days I see you turning
What is only a few seconds
in French this turns to mush

What I see you doing is flying
Or pecking something a tree
at the tops way up there

My nights have you near
So it is not as disturbing
but wait just wait for me

When My Mind Rests

When my mind rests
I cannot rest

The night cools down
so fast

Their shirts look clean
but I smell a nervous smell

Poison takes over
the unit

Of course the strong know
many things

What opens up
so beautiful

They talk
about their hands

First Of All

The valley is a wide smile just like
the one you had in the photo.  I could only see
the gap between my teeth when I looked
laughing a year ago
into the fake space between us.

The oily leaves of oaks shine
under the windy sun. How did I get here
how did I get this far from the dry stubble
that's underneath the trees
underneath the shade so interesting
so cool and so delirious
next to our mouths.

What Now

So many pasts and presents and future falling down to past now to future chanting nothing middle pages in a book on justice crying out for an end to murder to torture to now pages falling this is motion this is not a poem looking and looking and

I Miss You

It is always the one left. Who

In the tree she flew up there. Past

But everything looked almost the same. Place

Why did that happen she asked herself. Plus

Some things lined up neat matching. Wonder

Is this depression or desperation. Figure 

His beauty never wavered exaggerated. More

The night doesn't end things supposed. Pause

Live With Me

on the couch stretch your legs
there by the coffee table drape them
so long so I remember their strength
resting I will know your mind

this light their voices our waiting
so much news

of nothing

you wait with me

May Turning

May turns as before
only sharper now and sliding
into more days
half light

sound turned off
so I thought

Looked And Looked

There it was in black & white
our faces and what looked so open
and closed a book and some other things
that were books and such there was broken top
I guess or maybe three fingered Jack plus
coffee mugs in that tight space where people
tell about themselves or ask about friends
My face was almost in the way of things
I mean it galloped into view and those
choppers their gap and all the rest
well give away what you can and then
sweep up the extra debris well

This Changed My

From flowers to leaf.
From hummingbird to
a to b. What is between

the best part
walking
at places
my heart

How They Changed

It is so early and late last
afternoon I found
my mother crying she said

it had just hit her
about the virus

and I could tell
a little bit

that she was leaving Germany finally
and also stepping into it
much closer still

bombs they could see
and yet couldn't
how they changed

A Long Way

Chaos cattle what do you think
they thought we were policemen
where is Erin? Visitors for me
ten years old flame if you
only knew he thinks he is the one
a.w.o.l. at Martin's Creek so
Mike knew not too well
serious offense talk should call me

Can you bring me a can
of orange juice Inspector Morse?
Finally doing justice. Peter Mathews.
Fresh information. In England.
I want to keep it that way.
Find him, we've got to find him.
Or, nearly imagined.

Like Now

It's like now
in my mind
all those years waiting
even though I didn't
exactly wait

Go Figure

I look back
back and back
until I get here
the small light
of a lonely person
then I imagine
those ten years
like now but ten
and I can barely
breathe quiet
waiting for
the day
to break.

Expiration Date

In that laboratory
where we ran the experiments:
1.
fighting bubbles
2.
working with definitions of time
3.
and how to control the flame
at the intersection
exactly--

I noticed his linen
and extra eyewear. So many
pairs. There on the table.

Other oddities, too,
like more gravity
in that room

when all dreams went silent
for once, thankfully
because.

The results were highly stable.
Yet so many more proofs waiting.
Screens stood ready and such.
Plus the workable infinite variations.

By then, all tools were tossed aside. There was
no more measuring
to be done

finally
by ignoring
all expiration dates
in a big way
to just focus
on the formulae.

Since Then

The hawk is obvious in its winter tree
even along the busy highway
same time same place

same day.

She wishes to be beloved.
Fine, but this is every minute
and every hour--

a song I have heard
too much

because the words are plain
they are not sung
they are mind waves
dying out before
crashing against the shore.

What I Didn't

What I did not tell you
today yesterday and forever
just the slight bend in your neck
the one that was always there
slid down to eternity to feathers
sliding on water sliding on by
the facts only details to ignore
in the face of each moment
gaining in speed in direction
as I swam alongside you
for a time for all of time

Swan Man

Your face more beautiful
than the sun

Your back the sun

       hands the most


Come back
     to me

they say
I saw
you

What is it
they say

Four Eleven

I hope I will never forget
your words you said
when nothing could be heard
from your beautiful mouth
except a clear sort of whisper
your way of talking slowly
me melting into your sound
until it was too late the meaning
forgotten until I remembered
to listen finally until sense
made its own sweet way there
to a place we could wander to
back and forth in time like now

If You Were Here

I would say yes 

no hesitation 

not like it was 

because scared 

is no way to 

careful is 

until I had your

I was unsure how 

then it was like

was a month 

your mouth

more would 

not matter

Tell Me

Which sun split in two why
is my heart racing along
to help

Pilamaya

For your slight smile
how sweet never noticed
for the Julian hawk on top
of the small tree
and the obelisk looming
behind at the hot springs

waiting for the next
shadowing

Mind Is

My mind is not here so where
do we look next
for time

crunch in my head

Max Headroom
that sarcastic robot
haunting two a.m. eye blinks

My haircut almost exactly
like his

       where


does this leave me
where doesn't this
leave me

      alone

And Sad Is The Day

When we said goodbye our backs facing
backwards where we left it moving
sprouting wings then following us flying
everywhere we went

I tried conversation once
a laughable solution because of rain
then sun and the threat of snow

My thoughts just poured out
freezing in intricate patterns
swimming like fish upstream
downstream to the nowhere towns
that were theories in a certain light
whole cities holding desire at bay

Maybe all this could be said
in a different language
one we were just learning
to speak again to each other

Body

Of a leopard a cat some big stretch
those paws with their retracted
deadly weapons of sweet destruction
his body came between us a fact
we could not get rid of at daybreak
when even the dust motes acting jealous
of what was impossible to leave behind

Thought About His

Well, his hands for one I thought swollen
but then looking gave me seagulls velvet leaves
and every sort of caterpillar the same colors
in the sweater I knitted for what's-his-name
don'tcha wonder how this passionate messenger
enters and exits just at a critical time
planning would not have made this more
perfect it is so much like a dream these past six
seven months did anything else spill over and slosh

Thought Too Much

I cannot feel only think
about you until I go back
but isn't this forward motion away
instead of toward how strange
this circle back beginnings
I think was an ending erasing
that again and more thrill up ahead
you chasing a shadow for years

So many years I wondered nothing
and yet suddenly everything matters
so now I feel it feel the pull back
to then and how what's missing isn't

Many Days Beyond

My favorite little plum trees now gone
from back of the Vintage Inn why

With Dad at the hospital with Mom
at the hospital this is no kind of life

Dear life:

           B b.    Nbn.    Mmm. M.     Mmm