for the sparrows and lilies

care for me, care for me
tonight where my brain should be, there is only empty space
and i need you.
and i
miss
You.

touch me, touch me, touch me
softly behind my ears
fingers on my collarbone
hands on my shoulders
weave my hair and hold me

oh, i'll take quiet steps through midnight courtyards
if you just promise me you're near.

ghosts teach caution, disappointment reservations
you & me are no stranger to these things

and in cryptic little poems, and barer letters with no addressee
insignificant confessions whisper
mostly, i like the way you move me

eucalyptus along barker pass,
palms by stearns' wharf,
mission lit skies in foggy rose gardens:
goodbyes come hard upon hellos

this much we know.
but we learn to stretch out our arms, anyway.

[the real reason i can't wait to go home.]

Meet Pancake & Waffle.

[for elle & t.]

i was in a valley called despair,
feeling more alone than i can say
you, you wouldn't have found me there
you were hardly looking anyway

now the setting sun sinks low
and we head out, solitary

oh, but if i had a thousand wildflowers,
i'd throw them at your feet

mountains of sand will disappear
while you keep on singing here
(and who knows if she'll be around?)

what can be done with dead leaves, you ask?
we'll have to burn them all
tie our cloaks in expectancy for the fire to come this fall

with blackened feet we'll run,
our mouths full of salt
we'll reach the highest heights in june,
pitch tents and watch
wait for flame to be put out.

i miss your hands the most.

swimming against the current

oh those nights
of unspoken promises and small disappointments and secret, unshed tears

i was burrowing for a while, back into that hole for foxes
but then your voice came from the earth itself

and i remember now, your name is Shepherd.

i'm just trying to be a human being

The Glass House, 15 April 2008



Everyone I see I think I've known before
From the opera house to the grocery store
My love for them I cannot ignore
Like a human voice in a quiet morgue

But I don't want to wear no dead man's suit
I don't want to wait until the moon turns blue
I don't want to dream if it won't come true--
If there's something in me, well, I guess it's in you

[Photo thanks to PennLive.com]

to open like a hinge, like a wing

...to listen to the enormous waterfalls of the sun