Break Up (1981)
(1)
Tonight, I lie alone
for the first time
contemplating slow
carpet
suicide
between the rolling verticals of Johnny Carson.
Outside my window,
an automobile applauds my decision
through the wet driveway.
My Anchor Steam upset
stomach reverberates acknowledgement
pounding rainsounds on the bed.
My heart has reached the 49th level;
the state of Alaska, the
wish for another 1964.
(2)
I feel like an ex-Beatle.
Everyone keeps asking me when we'll
Get Back/Come Together.
Hey!
I'm still recovering from her
neutron apple,
which left me intact but changed my thoughts forever.
Alone, I have become aware
I am a descendant of Adam. Man,
I hurt.
There is this pain in my side that
just won't go away.
Only Two People / The Big Bang (07-24-2011)
when we stand
outside on the sidewalk
when we walk
on the planet Earth
when we lie down
you turn to me
you wrap your arms
around my torso
your chin rests
on my chest
my right arm takes in
your shoulders
I feel your warmth
is a feeling
that makes me
one with the stars
then we kiss
lips on lips on lips
and I know how
the universe was made
“Breaking Apart the Well-Wrought Object" (06-16-2012)
--title of a lecture by Arthur Sze
A boy jumps around placed purple flowers,
but only to hear his sneakers hit concrete.
He is called away. Framed windows reflect
rectangular room fluorescence. Inside, a cough,
along with occasional creaking chair, or
rustled sleeve on plastic arm indicates
there are breathing bodies, minds composing
in earthy space, as unseen freeways roar
in the nearby distance, waves try to overwhelm sand,
sky reaches to heaven, not quite making it.
The same for this planet's solitary life;
because infestations grow on surface, deep
in the core, a small sun waits to be
born, to throw light on inner darkness;
to reveal creation continues to create bowls
to crash and repair; gold filling gaps; evolved art.
Big Bangs (01-25-2013)
out out out out out out out out out
out with bombs and incendiary devices
out with rifles and guns
out out out out out out out out out
out with arrows and bows
out with knives and sticks
out out out out out out out out out
out with humans and apes and animals
out with fucking, violence and aggression
out out out out out out out out out
out, out… start, start
start over… over start
split atom
rock hurl through universe
plant push through earth
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Poppies (04-15-2017)
Poppies! Poppies! Poppies! Poppies!
Blown around by the breeze
Like citizens by politics
If Moses had hiked this hill
He would have said the clusters of
Orange flames were beautiful signs of God
Walk as a tee-shirted giant
In the land of the poppies
Swaying by the passing wind
Open petals take in
The sunny flow of air
Fed the feeling of being alive
Shadows pass over the poppies
Shoes temporarily knock flat the poppies
The poppies bounce back up lifted by the following
A field of orange and yellow and purple
Brings delightful color to the brown hills
The cloudless blue sky
Kneeling amongst the poppies
Get close to pure beauty
Fitting right in
Spotted desert brush
Enhanced by orange and yellow and purple clumps
Such harmony in the variety of colors
The sign says Poppy Festival
April 22nd-23rd but
It's already here
Bearded and unbearded men stroll
Surrounded by poppies
Smiles all around
Buds hang together
Like a group of poppies
Grow to love the company
Outside with the wind dancers
Sashaying to the music of the breezes
Twenty-four hours every day
Put anything next to a poppy
And it's livened up
A bouquet of flowers and object
You are one of the flowers too (08-01-2017)
It’s even easier to acknowledge Veteran’s Honor when it is a lush magenta rose as well.
Take a walk to the Rio Samba, see dresses swirling yellow, orange, and pink.
The Gemini, white center opening out to the sun of red outer petals.
Mardi Gras, you know the brilliance of an electric pink dress touched by frayed brown edges.
Belinda’s Dream, the face in the softest hint of pinkish cream that has more layers than you’ll ever experience again.
A bunch of delicate white rose petals clustered around each other, Pillow Fight! (Radiating suns in the middle of every pillow.)
Scattered white flowers, near pink ones, next to yellow, a Rainbow Knock Out.
Midas Touch is the goldest yellow imaginable; if roses were money….
Royal Amethyst has cornered the market on lavender, such a feast full of flora.
What’s left but yellow heavily tinged with pink, Love & Peace, a perfectly shaped rose.
No, look down at this! Small roses blushing to white…just like Passionate Kisses!
The ultimate coupled rose? A Double Delight of sun yellow vortex and bold red ends.
But what makes this garden complete?
The petite beach-tanned cellphone photographer in her white dress artfully filled with black paisleys, sandal-exposed white-out painted toes, her fragrant smiling face framed by an auburn hairfall.
Fireworks (08-31-2019)
a street tree
exploding with magenta
flowers, each like a fourth
of July fireball in August
spiraling out of the green
held up by brown trunk
on the smooth grass
of a traffic meridian
--and look--there's
another one on
a different island
and again, over here
boom boom boom
bloom bloom bloom
