michigan

starlight drips waxily
across my bedsheets...
the window,
a peephole to the bedchamber of forever,
opens wide
and outside
the meteors
row across the river of night
like tired souls across the river Styx

Linger

that morning in our makeshift bed
-the first time-
rain snuck in over our restless heads
tapping along the sides of the tent

you shifted,
arousing from your slumber,
to linger with me
soft and slowly;
our faint silhouettes dancing
as the rain faded
and morning rose through the mist

and in the darkness
the next night
our bodies arrested in delight-

and further still
we are weeks removed
from each others company
and i still feel your gentle press
against my thighs
against my chest

against my heart...

snails

tread carefully
the night is full of snails;
hobble backed abhorances
making their slow pilgrimage
on the shoulders of grass blades...
small and emerging,
surveying the starless night
they are the only sound

depositing trails of nuptial vows behind them
kissing trudge, stomach born,
the moon slips down like a child sneaking out
barefoot among the trembling foragers
with extended baton eyes

tongueless language
grouping together captives on the porchsteps
dutifully crawling
like gentle mouthing,
gentle breathing,
silent, cornered, creatures
they conduct their blind courtship

daystage dance: michigan

snatch and slink of the trumpets
The hot august dance floor
breathing in and out under our feet
and you,
you smell of lavender and sweat
your smile exposed-
outside the moon tilts her head
and thinly smiles
like the old portraits of weak-chinned, urn-bodied women
with high foreheads
and breakable hands
ready to break free

the people around us swell
spit valves open
and that tall bass player
grows her note in the gloom;
moist and gagging like greenhouse flowers....

sift

Lay me upon your table
Sift through me
Like mail
Search me for meaning
And tumble over me with your eyes,
Your fingers...
There’s too much,
Not enough,
Take in,
Pull out.
Linger with me
Like a lover's letter...
Leave no invitation
U n o p e n e d.

74

All around us
Lights stream
Blazing trails of sovereignty.
Along the darkened forests edge
Women wander
In the wonders of
This Eden

On the seventh day
They'll all spin out-
The beauty will recede
Innocuous and nimble
And we'll each fade into
Our alternate existence...

But for now, there is this...

If I could still this moonlit moment
Between clean sheets of mime and melancholy,
slumbered by creeping shadows,
The night would hold itself
Like untouched inertia;
No breath, but a star-stained sky.