Toad

We are cast
In metal thick
Where water
In droplets
Would groove
Through unspeakable
Lengths of time
And fold upon
Itself into
Whatever cuts
Deep and bloody

I cannot answer
I cannot promise
I know my skin
Laid upon you
In strips
Drips down
To your knees
Where you beg
In the mud
Like a toad
Because you love it

Close

There is no there
Wherever you are
I am the fool
Do you own the chain
Around my neck
Knees in the mud
Because you love it
Blood in your teeth
Because you lick it
In the company of wolves
You sing in the shower
I fall all the way
Down the mountain
Drink another shot
Smoke again
Die of lung cancer
Tell me I’m not correct
Smell the flowers
Compass face
West
Where the sun falls

Jasmine

I meant we had to
have a reason I said
you were only there
for the window
and we bestowed
ourselves upon
the forest green

It never felt more real
the stranger's attic
he downstairs, I up
he in the garden
I smelling the jasmine

I told you there was a reason
you were laughing, did you
recognize the very place
before it all began
wherever you land

I bravely waited they said
on the bondage of me
on the damage done me

Soaked

he silver slippers
back down the steps
rocky roses fall
up into
grass clouds
she lights beneath
the citrus tree
compass face
slender waist
ripples
golden ring
palm tree
juice doesn't drip
smoke doesn't sing
hand in hair
we were distance
colliding where your
teeth tapped
gentle and hungry
i thought the oil
soaked through
the cuts
the rain made

The Cliff Never Lies - Image

The Cliff Never Lies

I don't need to
Try and make it right
Try to turn The Fates
Back in my direction
But wherever I land
I am laid bare
Another gasp against
The pounding rain
Flood me with your
Bright story, even
The heavens move for
The king, his joyous
Ravings eternally
Scribed in history's flesh
Against the grain where
Bones turn once again to dust
And is the dust beautiful?
So many questions for the poet
But they keep asking
Once you have taken up
With strings and hands and fire
You can never be brought
To the precipice
Yet what false dreams
We do believe
As the cliff never lies
And the yawning
Below bellows
And so we close our eyes
Forget the fall
And yet always, again
Crash down open
once more to dust

For the Moon

Just when you think
You know it all
Something rips
The bloody viscera
From your gut
How was this the choice?
I asked the gods
Laid myself
At their mercy
Naked, prostrate
Wounded, tender
Sparkling for the moon
I’m sorry
I can’t stop now
I’ve gone too far already