Poem: Startled

Startle me.
Go on, just leap out from behind a wall
And startle me.

I know you can.
I know you’ve got it in you.

A kiss or a kick in the kidneys;
A sunrise.

The small bargains we make –
They’re not the small bargains of
Sisyphus?

You startle me.
You still startle me.

Maybe it’s just what I’m doing with being
Startled.

21 March 2007

Poem: Acceptance

The disappointments of the heart
Come too fully armed
For their everyday occurrences.

The bloom of the bruise that beats the mind
Should not so surely march
Upon the stomach and the soul.

But the standards of hope
In being raised must expect occasionally
To flag.

The body must accept the world;
Green skin clutches no claim on facts.
And a faith in freedom of the self

Must grant equal rights
To others’ choices in their wheeling lives
If love is to ever touch on love.

10 October 2003

Poem: Survival #2

The wounds of joy
Abide with me,
Recollected in tranquillity.

The golden boy
Inside of me
Is connected to agility:

He tightrope walks across the shocks
That shake and shatter the ice blocks
That build around my brains;

His slightest smile remains awhile
To wake and water the stopped clocks
That gild me with their chains.

That horse of Troy
Still glides in me;
It protects my ability.

20 October 2003

Poem: Survival #1

Flat upon my back
The central joy I lack
Need not constrain me.

Still within my point,
But rocking up the joint,
Words but restrain me.

Dancing on my own,
My fearful soul of stone
Does not detain me.

The handmaid of the free
Will never help me see;
Can not unchain me.

That blood of my heart,
Spilled only on my art,
Declines to stain me.

11 October 2003

Poem: To Carol

Slaughter me if you don’t like me,

I don’t mind:

I’ve slaughtered those who’ve liked me
But who have not been
Anyone I’m looking for.

Harsh but fair
Feel free to be, but

This embrace of objectivity comes
With one kick:

Know the value of my devotion.
I’d love you to love me but

If you don’t,
Remember –
I found you worth loving.

15 April 2005