the stars, the sea, and sleep.

Monday, January 31, 2011

A Key And An Open Door

I walked out into the night,
There was a cold sting to meet my eyes.
I think God was erasing the world he made,
A perfectionist on an asymptotic slide.
I felt the ground below me give way,
But I wouldn't fall all the way down.
No, I couldn't fall all the way through.
I was stretching out my DNA
And walking up the double-helix case,
It was time to find what I was made of,
What I could break from pushing gas in neutral.
This might be the end, but it sure is damn beautiful.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Minor Fifteen

I've got this quiet window seat,
Let's make something out of it
I'm facing, giant faces meet,
Let's take nothing, proud of it.
You've got this style I can't defeat,
So I think I'll take a stand.
Six legs to four, it's up in the air now
And the wind is still invisible, visceral, amazing.
I follow your imprints in powder,
I measure the power in your step,
I am tripping. I am dripping with eyes glazed over,
Sun melting the snow to bring in new trees.
We're all in that paper chase.
A good spring will put green on that face, you'll see.

Of the things that were supposed to be done

We're getting into classics
We're getting into trouble
We're getting into double digits
Before the lights turn out,
And that's a promise I will put in the ring.
We worship the pyramids
But we turn them into diamonds,
Then regard smaller gods
Until it's all gone in communion.
I twice sunk a plastic ship
And held onto the table for stability,
The PNW and the SoCal swagger,
A holy dagger in the name of the trinity.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Lost On A Gateway Somewhere Out In Wisconsin.

We both stood on the dock, the devil's prongs
That decayed into your childhood proof.
It kept you safe until you let me pick at your heavy splinters
That night you willingly surrendered,
Fighting back only with the short breaths you had to give.
The moon stumbled over the water
Racing to get to my eyes with a most distant stare.
I would be out before the end,
Only kept awake by the pricks of pine.
I sunk my greatest wish to the bottom of the lake
That every new year doesn't come after December,
But if I could even remember,
If I could even remember...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Tremolo, Treble Low

I was scared when your frame faded into soft flames
And was made into a bad trick played in good spirit.
You've gotten all scatterbrained
From when your life took too many turns.
We're burning rubber now
And you're getting high like a lit fuse riding shotgun;
I'm waiting for you to go off.
And we can all see how it finally got in
And what wounds it left when it bowed out.
Your heart pushed until there was nothing left
I burned what you gave me to keep on going,
But the last thing you said shook off and fell flat.
None even left to cry, only odd ends left untied.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Summer Days

The crust was burnt and bacteria grew,
We were retracing our steps in growth
Finding the world and exploiting its worth.
Our teeth sunk in like a swing of whiskey
And light fermented each sour mash memory,
Sun-drunk on a bench reeking the stench of youth
With feet planted in the ground that nibbled at us.
Our eyes turned mushroom cloudy
As the light came in for one more time,
Exhaling fading spores speaking towards future.
We had found unsteady footing in damned coincidence,
And danced away the summer with commanding dissonance.

Anniverity

When keystrokes became closed fists,
And even more tightly closed lips,
I couldn't give myself the space.
I wish I didn't keep tabs,
But you should have known,
This is how I compute.
What was emotionally consumed
Was made illogically moot
Was made the resilient distance,
A strain of virus and its proof.
Who would ever have thought?
When it was aptly made forgotten.
It would be safely placed poison,
No longer food, but won't go rotten.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Magadents

Let's have a contest.
I want to make you do nothing, nothing at all,
Right there is the magic, yes, nothing at all!
Your stress is a needle on a compass
That prods you until it goes right through you.
Like ghosts, it will do you in and pull you out,
Spilling your innards in the same old mundane cadence.
You say it like you mean it, but for all the wrong reasons,
"The trees aren't falling in a sequential order,
The qunitessiential color of this arbor is not right for this season."
I'll just give you a reason to stay true,
A reason to breathe when the leaves leave their hue,
So that you both can remember for as long as you can
Without ever having to keep count again.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Counting By Convection

Feel the cold press up against your skin
While subtle advances plow through snow,
Assertive and pinched with sensitive nerves
A heavy breath that steams away.
One develops a touch for this,
Two makes the connection for a second,
Third time's the charm that shines on
Four walls that hold it all together.
Of the five fingers on your hand,
I just want to hold all of them.
There was a hole in six,
Because I didn't want a bad seven
From the charm that made a clean break of fear,
The crinkled nose you put on when
Disinfectant only works on the mirror.

Swing Low, Sneak By Chariots

Tangle your feathers in bubbly,
Makes you lightheaded
Makes the coating fuzzy
So sparks can catch fire,
You're a phoenix going blind in the choir of the sun.
Never thought twice to contend,
But once was enough to singe the edges.
Oh yes, here we go again,
Seeing how well you go away.
You've been putting things in you
To bring something out,
But now you answer yes or no with diluted blood.
This is how you bow out,
With a stumble, sinking to lows,
Down the stairs when no one knows it.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

A-P/S-P

There was a lone wolf standing
On the structure of brotherhood
Whose silence was a compliance
That was most often misunderstood.
The moon sat terribly low,
Unbearably sick of the slick city air
That slid in and out of life,
Setting things down it would later take away.
Notice how each of these days is spent
Pressing a button for stillborn proof that
I'm just a light-chaser debasing out here,
Dying on the truth atop a snow covered roof.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Perspective Detective

Tilt-shift the world until it fits into your pocket,
Gets lost in the change and is tossed away with lint.
Or be the flint that saves the daylight, sunshine hero.
Your lips explode when the words want to be let go
Until you can't tell the difference between
The sweetest sincerity or sleep-crusted drool.
Fight the crime of digitized life
That goes by in properly tagged flashes.
The path of least resistance is irresistible,
But it gave you all of this distance between each step.
You couldn't hear my light through another silent night,
This time you need to fly, not fall asleep in safety nets.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

How It's Going To Be

Well, would you look at the time!
You're always halfway out the door
With a twisted neck, looking in
As if you missed something
On the storm you rode out.
It was a hurricane in a time frame
Once on the mantle by the present tree,
Now buried in the sandbox.
These hearts we have are landlocked,
We're always looking for what brand of
Light politics to which our talking ticks should adhere.
Hold the hands, flesh it out and listen,
The oceans will flood to you like the blood in your ears.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Treated Water

Skin goes bad as soon as he steps foot in,
Well there's no real good in sounding clean
If you're only going to talk dirty.
How the shoveled snow salts your shoes
How the mind's ceiling turned to gray from blue,
And the things you would do
If given the slightest opportunity.
Crystal eyes can drop like icicles
And shatter on your very figure,
Laying there like a drunk on cold concrete,
It's just a turn to the other side of a pillow,
Falling fast asleep into the darkest dreams.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Da Mayor Said To Mookie

Tell me that you know what's going on,
Tell that you're catching on much better than I am
Since the mind I made went out, not up.
Not a city that rose, but one that could grow a thorn.
There are things we'll always know on our own
That we will never tell one another
For the sake of selfish stability,
The shellfish and its humility.
Don't give me what I find most precious,
I just see reflections of gems in the water
That strangle the skin on old hands and cold feet.
If someone ever knew, it wouldn't be me.
A mouth opens to speak only "always" or "never"
If you only knew, if I only knew better.

Tunnel Vision

I lied and said it was my last one,
But I stole from a sick baby and an old man
At his request, and I did my best to improvise.
I followed family traditions
Keeping a safe distance behind the clock,
But sometimes it seemed we were so far
That it just stopped moving all together,
And then I could remember.
Openers are never closers
When we can still call it hinged.
This sunlight binge makes melatonin well
And we're coming up to older bridges now,
Concrete cracked and charred that never caught on fire.
Well enough, I couldn't hold it for you.
Clear the catch, whatever caught on when it tried,
Forget the things we kept in fear to the side.
The roof peeled off when the deepened shutter opened,
Overcautious of the light, for which it’s always hoping.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

2 Seat 1

Anxiously looking up every five seconds,
I see not the missing face,
Just one mildly misdirected.
Swirling in the cybernetic cycle,
It's a digital age, I can hold it like a bible.
Pull me in with your scripture,
Email and Facebook are reality's suture
And I hope to the Server that I will be saved.
My anticipatory friend is more of an imaginary date
Named in the fear of a cold seat pad.
Let's play the animal game:
Am I a giraffe or a prairie dog
Or am I just killing time?
Maybe all of the above,
Hoping each door swing is mine.
I keep using my manners so they think I'm not crazy,
My speech is not hazy, there is no hesitation.
Anything can be turned into a learning experience
Or just another source for a night's inspiration.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Golden

I'll be explicit when I'm with it,
I'm so nonchalant with arrogance
That I make it sound funny.
Mouth so stuffed full of fluff,
You've got me pushing out a chubby bunny.
Running quick, just as summer came home early.
Aluminum shines a dirty smirk
As it is crushed and hushed in a dark corner
Or in a black bag for the coroner.
Stiff as a carrot, we cut out the lights
For the single candle on a cake.
The sun's coming up and it's warming up to you
And you blow it all out, just like you're supposed to.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Four Old Numbers

Here is a toast to the ghost made
From burning busy bridges
And bruising our fruitful lives.
We wished the stems to wicks of candles,
But we vandalized our eye for youth.
Water clears the throat that spits fire,
The seeds we knew couldn't grow
To root through space and time,
Across highlited planners
And mapped out state lines.
The glass clinks as a long standing dial tone,
A sound that took a while,
But left a message on the home phone.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Day Stella Died

From the stockroom to the standing room,
We were pulling her out to keep in the plug.
I asked her if she remembered when I pushed,
Said, "It was the only way to keep you close,
You shed your skin with a season's ending
And I couldn't pretend there was nothing
In between." Sips made periods in your speech,
A silence better left bleached in the sun.
When I left blacked out the week before,
I thought there would be warm light.
These colored squares are city blocks
In summer heat for one more time.

Search: "life" -imagination

In a stockroom I found potential,
A coat of dust and a window wall
With a view of eternal youth.
Only from this window could I see,
But when I sneezed it went away.
The shutter choked the light
In an instance glimpse, freshly trite.
Profanity is honesty's release,
And yes, I believe the bullshit
That comes out of my own mouth.
Please don't make me be the asshole,
Kid, you've got everything you need.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Wear Out Focus Ring

I woke up in a crasher's bed for a stranger
With a creak from a fuzzy heart overstuffed
That slipped under my ear through the night.
The sun dried my lids until they cracked open,
The brightening colors felt fresh, and the smell,
As old as the night before, but already spoiled.
It was a morning without an oil painting
And I laid as still as a portrait thinking:
Here's to the life that I couldn't lead.
It's a punch in the mouth, but at least I can bleed.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Pinwheel In A Puddle

She laid down with her right arm in the water
That was set in a cast and held up on stilts,
We wrote on it with metal, footsteps, and filaments.
Colored light in the water turned into oil
And a halo was put on the crescent moon
For the tides that pulled toward their final ascension.
We stood, as small as life, and made no intervention.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Ringing In A New Century

I said I wouldn't keep score,
But it's been about a twentieth.
Neither the wrinkles in the towers
In a wide pan of a burning city,
Nor the the bags that hang low
In the wind of dream chasers,
But the dull red light that pulsates
Alternating with a set of boxy zeroes.
A colon separates what it was
To what it is when the script is scrapped.
There are plot holes in these potholes,
She rolls over the asphalt like a farewell.
An actor worked and made me a friend,
It is just a campus forever again.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Chocolate Powder Milk

This intimacy is a foreign syndrome,
The power given in submission
That presses the chamber to thought.
He could never do more than hiss,
Though what is missed is not forgotten,
A fetus that grew into a hardened shell
From her insecurities in a fluid life.
There are directions independent
Of intentions that transcend a cycle,
And it is ourselves who are liable.
It is ourselves who scar our eyes
With viability in these trivialities.
The snake cradles the child
With its venom on reserve,
But turns away out of respect,
Its innocence still undisturbed.

Friday, January 7, 2011

A Grasp On Oil

My body is a time-smeared silhouette
Against everything I've learned to give up
Laid out in shadows and pricks of light.
But I could never forget it,
Mutual soft speak that meant nothing drastic,
Full and empty glasses lit up by festive plastic.
But the undoing of the bow on the present of past
Is a surprise wrapped in cellophane
That sits on a dresser adorned in sticky notes.
All with scribbled symbols that once had a meaning,
But you bent their arms and crosses
To believe something else they said.
This life has answers you will never understand,
Just look into a mirror, now explain what you can.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Stacked

It seems like everything is laminated
Menus, eggs, booth seats, and days,
But they shine like diamonds in interrogative light.
Here is a hand reaching out
Spilling over everything we can remember.
You see it! Don't you see it?
You got up for a second
And can't sit back down quite the same.
Warm spots have gone cold
And two hours have done nothing to the night
That shops before our foggy window.
The floor is covered in crusty sauces
And our lost time opened for answers,
We fight off our past and burn up its gas,
This city has never gone by any faster.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Calendars Become Cubicles

It felt like summer for a second
And everything was in its right place,
Though relative, but not absolute.
It was as brief as the storm surrounding
And a thief in its loss impending,
Reaching into my pockets of light
Running away in time
So that the subject loses focus.
I always wanted the corner with the window
For the comfort and the perspective,
But now my hands pat empty jackets
As I check the time and play detective.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Politics of Asking

If you jump in the water, it will feel like a flood
But it is far better than drawing your own blood
From fading pictures of sharp edges.
You've lived a legend grown too familiar to ledges,
Armed with an excuse for an exceptional view.
Take it in at shutter speed,
Stand still or else you're light will streak.
If you jump on the paper, you'll bleed right through
But there is nothing better than if you knew
How well these clots had once diffused.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Sunburst Mammalia

Kick your pretty shoes through the mud,
I could sit here forever taking air only to breathe.
Dull warmth pressed against me
And it shimmered in a western palette
Through the cleansing voice that rain could speak.
This laughter can stain everything we've come to love
And it wouldn't stop you from staring back
Looking for an answer in the deep azure.
The cage God put it in was meant to be expanded,
But it is left up to us to work it out in due time.
So put a crease on the last page of your favorite book,
You cannot forget how this one was going to end
When only the light of working fire made it through.
It burned a picture so tastefully overexposed
Of the flavor in each word skewed by your front gate:
"We don't make our opportunities, but we make our on fate."

Saturday, January 1, 2011

To Leave Unannounced (Brut Redux)

Always almost making mistakes,
But I assure you some get through.
If only some knew...
If only I could let someone know
There's a way to slow things down,
But things get so loud
That my ears could bleed,
But I don't need to care one bit;
I couldn't give it a meaning.
I never thought to speak of a resolution,
Honesty and emptiness had already filled
A solution to shitty verses,
Green glass and my ass on a cold curb,
Waiting for black chariot hearses.
My eyes brighten in embarrassment
As I slur out my repentance,
There are full bottles in the cold box
And I can't finish a single sentence.

[REMOVE SECTION]

Two-oh-double-once-again,
I'm counting my sins with hands full.
I had to catch up with my past at some point,
I've been taught too well how to say nice things.
I've learned so well how to take them
With my eyes closed and an open mouth.
Champagne lips and elastic clips
Champagne lips and elastic clips
This line tastes too familiar,
And I don't seem to care.
It's wearing down my tongue,
The bubbles pop,
You're not/you're there.