Witness

 Everything in this peculiar world                                            

Has a tendency to become 

More and more humanlike. 

Soon store dummies will be 

Needing yearly check-ups, 

And wig head stands 

Will be requiring chiropractic. 

I always had a deep distrust 

Of things that looked human, 

And pretended to be inanimate anyway. 

Why did they have to look so alive, 

If they had no warm flesh or coursing blood- 

Living beings have blood that sings 

To other living beings and it remembers 

The consciousness it nourishes. 

The flowing blood is a fingerprint; 

A time stamp of being 

That permits no perjury.

Because You Were Beautiful

Because you were beautiful

The frost formed fingerprints, on window glass

As if to touch your shoulder, when you pass;

Or write in code, your name upon the leaves

So that it shows, whenever something breathes,

Because you were beautiful

Because you were beautiful

The storm left grayish teardrops on the sill,

A keepsake of the stillness it must feel

After angry clouds have left the sky,

And the birds and wildlife breathe a sigh:

Because you were beautiful

Because you were beautiful

This heart has felt the shadow of your grace,

Wherever loveliness has left its trace;

And songs I heard beside you, on the earth

Became the stars above us, giving birth-

Because you were beautiful

Blame Me This Time

This time, to save time                                                
I'm just going to fall in love
With myself: discrete lunches
Alone at the table, with an engrossing book
Candlelight dinners and vintage wine,
Looking up at the stars,
Trying to name all the constellations-
Just me and only me;
Slow dancing in the garden
To a symphony of cicadas
Heart-shaped chocolate boxes,
With a romantic poem tucked under the ribbon
Surprising myself with flowers
And fresh-squeezed orange juice
After an all nighter
Of watching movies by myself
Secret notes slipped into my bag
To meet myself at an undisclosed place
For a romantic interlude:
I can see it's going to get complicated
But at least, I'll have only myself to blame
If things go wrong.

He stole his eyes from a milk-glass moon

He stole his eyes from a milk-glass moon,

From drops of peridot scattered at sea,

Hidden beneath a moon-shadowed ruin.

His father not caring where or with whom,

Or from what rare ocean his being might be-

He stole his eyes from a milk-glass moon.

He learnt his letters from a dark winged loon

Who flew where the mountains caress the trees,

Hidden beneath a moon-shadowed ruin.                                                

His speech was a garble of false and truth,

Whistling like a hollow piped reed,

He stole his eyes from a milk-glass moon.

His eyes a contagion of waters blue

And brackish trunks of underwater trees

Hidden beneath a moon-shadowed ruin.

His normal voice wove a threadless tune,

Brought close the mermaids, hungry to feed;

He stole his eyes from a milk-glass moon,

Hidden beneath a moon-shadowed ruin.

(my first Villanelle- yaaay! lol)

I had two rats to fill my days

I had two rats, to fill my days                                                        

Through spines of books and bed clothes

They chewed their lazy way

And when they saw you, froze

Through spines of books and bed clothes

Released out of their cage

And when they saw you, froze

For chewing was their rage

Released out of their cage

And when they saw you, froze

For chewing was their rage

Their pile of booty grows

And when they saw you, froze

They lurked behind the dresser

Their pile of booty grows

The cage mess is the lesser

They lurked behind the dresser

They chewed their lazy way

The cage mess is the lesser

I had two rats, to fill my days


(a Pantoum poem)

And the Letter Came

And the letter came:
And you thumbed, humbled, over it and over
An hundred times a week, you took it out
Pouring each word over again
As for the first time, it still was
And blotchy it was from tears
And tips, nervous fingers which pulled little rips
Into the off-white paper, where much strong handling bore
Each time's grief bearing need: you read it, nothing more
Seen differently; surely always the same, yet nuances
Came despite instinctual knowledge of before;
Did this sentence- this wording style preferred it
That he might mean only just that- or was it
Imagination's sullied creation? did those words
Sound tired; and if very thought of you
Became fatigue, was it the plague of his precious pen, or brain
Or just the worry of his own entrenchment there?
Even so; sometimes you read familiar words
That joy shouted from, certain as could be.
Times when you felt uneasy, queasy at one word
Or phrase, as if a ringing death-knell must have
Rang: to spell out the end of time's bitter being-
Crossed yourself, three times; and said a beaded prayer.
The letter came to be important to you that this
Could cause everything to cease; a hunt driven
Feverish, once it went missing where from out it's pocket-house
(deeply as when you bent under the trees..
to pick up crying children in their frail need) it leaped.
And when one day unfolding, the letter dropped into your lap
Pieces neat piled into sections; folds perforated through
Because so nearly worn out; stained, thin-souled as grief itself
Heart treasure map woven in lover's lace; bequeathed
And then realized: there no other letter ever was or be;
If never sent, gone missing; you'd pinned all quickened heart beats
Stayed hope's courage upon a single letter's fate, and it
Carried through the fears, saw above the swarming years
Sleepless nights when, no tears left, it swam: you gathered up the limp
Damp, feathered pieces and stowed them safe for keeping
Knowing some day again, when things were not the same
And finding them you would remember, this single letter
By which all hope then was given, your hope that came
As a single letter; came due south, straight down from heaven..

Miscalculation

I envy the cool darkness, now we're apart
And the warmth which wrapped your body:
Cocooned by your breathing,
The secret shadows and angles
Which gradually changed every hour
Like a dark sundial recording
All your limbs tiniest convolutions.

I know there was a sort of                                                            
Kabalistic synchronicity
Some algebraic function
And if only I'd studied more;
If only I'd applied myself better
I wouldn't have gotten all the equations wrong
Lost the notes, failed the exam.

I remember those once acute angles
How they fit so perfectly my body's contours
Our seams vanished together, smooth soldered
In the same molten dream; mouth to mouth
Torso upon torso, moving wave unfurled
Water of twin oceans, mingled-
Now it's only the moonlight that burns.