2/23/09
spend your moments wisely, or spend them surprisingly,
but it's silly to think you can save them.
no interest to be had, your dividends all wasted.
2/24/09
Living with you is my own technicolor parade
Each day full of ticker-tape and big brass bands
The feel of returning home - again and again.
2/26/09
As their lips form the shapes of their broken hearts
I hear them whisper that I shouldn't settle
Not for you and not for your cold hands.
2/27/09
The pressure to say something profound
directly relates to the size of my penis.
It's why I usually sound like an idiot.
3/2/09
A smart man wrote
"One man's faith is another man's delusion."
I will practice tolerance while I levitate.
3/5/09
Television antennas used to resemble naked trees.
Now they look like little nuclear devices.
I miss the metal trees.
3/6/09
kill your teleblindness and turn on your poemivision.
instead of becoming another venture capitalist,
become the next venture poetess.
3/9/09
dishing up the night's sky with the sun's leftovers,
the moon shines down its lunar light and
drives us into lunacy.
3/10/09
Can you sit here with me and wait for the fireworks?
They'll come, all at once, spiraling from nothing.
I promise it will be spectacular.
3/12/09
Hold your eyelids close to you,
Make the darkness explode,
And start wishing on your own stars.
3/13/09
You're lying on the living-room floor with headphones on.
I hear a faint and muffled heartbeat.
We're alive - so fast and strong.
3/16/09
the dark circles under my eyes
inform me that i'm thinking too much.
sleep, they say, is for the dead.
3/17/09
Scared time won't last
moments evaporate as we look forward and back
too late all gone
3/18/09
Ape aware of the perception
the assumption--his every complex task
a miraculous expression of humanity.
3/19/09
Dark orange leather spins.
Bone-white nylon snaps.
Heart pounds, swallowed whole by confidence.
3/20/09
Learn chemistry this summer
maybe shelby will dance with me
doesn't matter should get a nice tan
3/23/09
we spend the years toiling.
filling up the bucket.
the one with a hole in it. the one full of nothing.
3/24/09
Please don't think it's okay for you to just sit there
While I'm looking at the world with my hair on fire
Keeping still while my heart is breaking
3/25/09
with your eyes turning to the back of your head
as if to see something you'd long since forgotten
that's the way i want to remember you forever.
3/26/09
The same venom runs through us
We share the same face
And when we yell, we are yelling at our own reflection.
3/31/09
The Grace of the Universe.
Elegant wind shaping.
Black moves all things.
4/2/09
I dream about sex and the apocalypse often.
But they never happen at the same time.
I guess my subconscious knows where to draw the line.
4/03/09
It is not enough to simply
have your arms around me….
I need your fingers too.
4/7/09
To navigate the space between us is impossible.
There are spaces; they do exist.
I've felt them but I know I couldn't find my way through them.
4/9/09
The potential energy haunts me,
Like the ink
In a pen I've lost the cap to.
4/10/09
You scurried along the off-white and made me shiver.
Then you tried to hide behind Kurt Vonnegut.
A nice effort, until I crushed your spirit with a dryer sheet.
4/13/09
I used to dread waking up in the morning,
for fear of what I’d done.
The freedom from that ... well, now I feel lucky to wake up at all.
4/14/09
Bumpy roads ruining alignment.
Spilling coffee everywhere.
I always feel best in the morning.
4/15/09
gaping into the unblinking eye of the void,
a kind of calm descends....a gentle knowing...
and i smile...warmed by the catharsis of disaster.
4/16/09
I am patient with you every morning.
And you still make me beg.
It's funny because, without me, you couldn't open the gate.
4/17/09
I dig my nails into buds,
Peel apart their delicate skin,
And destroy the one thing I am looking for.
4/20/09
you decanter your witty banter,
leaving behind the sediments
of your upsetedness.
4/21/09
every cell is coming to a rolling boil
creating wavy lines of dizziness
until nothing makes any sense
4/23/09
They tell me cynicism equals maturity.
But I like my arms most
When they are open.
4/27/09
The Outlaw side of me shakes his head
every time I catch myself
falling in love with you again.
4/28/09
We only have seasons because the earth is tilted.
Happy spring to all the young buds blooming.
Allergies send me crashing back to tilted earth.
4/29/09
in the event of an emergency
do not become alarmed...
simply press the button marked: ALARM.
4/30/09
I don't know where you started.
And I have no idea where you'll end.
But I can’t wait to join the ride.
5/7/09
You leave today.
I liked the way you held my head.
No one ever did that before.
5/12/09
Have you got a dime to spare?
I'm Hungry and my money has run out.
Ooh is that a digital toaster!
5/13/09
Please don't open up to me ...
i don't want to see inside of you ...
i have my reasons, and my suspicions.
5/14/09
You've changed my approach to the world.
Nothing crosses my mind ...
Without putting it through your filter.
5/15/09
The shape of wind.
Its grace and force captured and revealed by every object it meets.
Trees bend, water curls, sand twirls, snow drifts.
5/19/09
your eyes are birthday candles
living in that slender moment
just before someone leans close, making a wish
5/21/09
I'm sending you a part of me.
It has been heavily stamped sixteen and a half times.
FRAGILE.
5/25/09
Today I’ll raise my own flag pole
and try to remember
what all the fighting is for.
5/26/09
How long until Lunch time?
My Stomach is Growling ...
Eat something already it’s going on 2 p.m.!
5/28/09
If you’re at the urinal ...
And you feel a sprinkle ...
It’s your own fault for wearing flip flops.
5/29/09
do the wolves ever bay at the sun?
do the trees ever dream of being
consumed by fire? because i do.
6/1/09
a writer bites the bullet every
night and then wakes up in the
morning to describe it.
6/2/09
Before I met you, I could sleep soundly for hours on end
Now, I barely sleep at all and often wear dark circles, red eyes
This way is so much better
6/5/09
It started with four Molson Ices.
Then came one angry ex-lover.
Before I knew it, I was sprinting across the highway.
6/9/09
The remembering tree never forgets.
Two Dollars for all of its services.
A shame I can't remember where it’s located.
6/11/09
I liked the way you danced into my front door.
Try not to stain the rug.
If you need me to, I’ll carry you out the back door.
6/16/09
the new goal: take responsibility - that would be - for myself
who did what to whom matters little
anymore
6/22/09
Just because I’m smitten with you
doesn’t mean
I suddenly love cats and tap dance.
6/23/09
Celery Crunch.
Dip the gal down now!
Here I left my couch for all to see.
6/24/09
when i close my eyes i can see
nipples and tongues and fire and nuns
but when i open them, all i see is you.
6/25/09
After you cut me off
I wanted to gouge out your eyes.
Then I changed the station and kept driving.
6/30/09
the most comforting idea I've come across
is that I'm not in control
of anything, not one little thing
7/3/09
I never knew it was possible to love you
so much that it hurts every cell, every part of me
but that's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it?
7/6/09
this whisky bottle haunts me
ghosts of slippery glass resent
my whispered pleas of regret
7/8/09
death comes like a dust finally settling after
swirling in the wind for years and years....
you must be careful not to breathe it in.
7/9/09
The world stopped for a single purpose.
Someone else pulled our trigger.
It forced us to wonder where we went wrong.
7/14/09
to really live within my skin
finally feeling each stitch
or at least I have today
7/15/09
three is the magic number
things can get shaky
when you have a loose cannon in there
7/17/09
the chanting monks of tibet
the screeching parrots of highland park
the aching silence of my medicine cabinet
7/20/09
The heat makes me smell
like a stinking hyena.
Too bad it doesn’t make me laugh like one.
7/22/09
words: like stuffing angels into body bags
reading their rumpled forms as if that
was all there was to it
7/23/09
My smiles are cashmere.
My frowns are worn leather.
Together they make polyester.
7/28/09
sometimes life catches me unaware
blink and you'll miss it - we're here for such a short while
but then, what was I really expecting?
7/31/09
My heart pounds when you're in my hands.
Sweat forms rivers above my veins.
An inch from perfection and we end miles apart.
8/5/09
i wish i was a caterpillar so that i could
slither and contort and sprain 32 ankles
but still be able to hobble along.
8/11/09
It happens when I least expect it
the visions take the stage slightly off to one side
and then quickly turning my head, I miss them completely
8/17/09
The janitor inside my head
keeps re-arranging the piles,
but nothing’s actually getting cleaned.
8/19/09
ted bundy, ed kemper, richard ramirez
all killed for sex...how fucking horny do you
have to get to cut someone's head off?
8/20/09
My joints ache in the morning.
Everything pops and hisses when I bend.
It all disappears when you giggle at me.
8/25/09
Stop looking for the missing
puzzle piece.
This isn't, and wasn't, ever a puzzle.
8/27/09
Sometimes I stand in my raincoat
Holding up the umbrella, I wait
For what, I'm never sure
8/28/09
I stand very still, every muscle tensed
tilting my head, listening
to the silence
8/31/09
The past and the future
have tormented me relentlessly -
but here, right now, it’s just wind.
9/2/09
sure there’s a formula,
there always is … but that does not imply
that we should be so god damn calculating.
9/9/09
The vowel "I" peels a scab:
Your voice spoons back to meet me.
Red as the only essential lesson.
9/17/09
I can still see your fragile fingers
flipping through a box of love letters
with your heart planted next to his tree.
9/21/09
I ended up wanting
something sharp, but not to travel with,
not to breathe beside.
9/22/09
when I think about you
it's hard to remember
that we both came from somewhere else
9/23/09
a sea worn roar rounds out
the truth of any mouth : dumb
word nub is what sands away
9/25/09
it is not a prism until you shine light through it…
without light, it is just another jagged piece of
something—that someone can bludgeon you with.
9/28/09
either yelling with glee or
screaming with glum--
the punk rock intensity of my two-year-old son.
10/1/09
When you move your life,
it's important to remember to save some energy,
to unpack all the boxes.
10/7/09
We lift stools off brass
railings: We drink beer every
dollar pinned to the bottle green ceiling.
10/8/09
I wish honesty tasted like something.
I’d understand myself
a lot better.
10/15/09
Sleep feels like a gift.
I used to think it was a waste of time.
Now I dream about it when I'm awake.
10/16/09
i don’t think we should talk today…
i think we should communicate in other ways…
i know that’s corny… but your mouth won’t stop bleeding.
10/19/09
Leaves falling like uncounted dead.
The uncounted dead growing
in number and meaning.
10/20/09
what's the problem with letting go?
it all keeps sticking to my hands and feet
like junk I want to dump, but can't
10/21/09
She holds two hands in front of her face:
Huddled lips stick to sunlight's threading.
The number 10 -- or -- surrender.
10/23/09
knowing the drugs keep the light from penetrating.
needing the drugs to keep the dark from winning.
wanting to quit to keep them both from mattering.
10/26/09
from within my bones, some poems
would roam. from beneath my nose,
some prose arose.
10/29/09
Shooting pain up my spine.
You put a smile on my face.
Crawling across my heart.
11/2/09
The ocean seemed calm,
like even strokes of eye shadow
under which no eye would lift.
11/4/09
night sequins sew your arms:
the day of the dead turns
bell hung stars into dance
11/12/09
My foot finds the next hold
without more than a second of thought.
I'd like to make all of my decisions that way.
11/13/09
Voice, teeth and words
mixed together with tears and smiles ...
sounds about right.
11/16/09
The hospital filled up
with missing fingers, missing teeth.
Even the cats looked lyrical.
11/17/09
I'm right behind you, always
just look over your left shoulder
and don't forget to wink
11/18/09
As if I could break the ocean
with my no light arrow, or sling back
my to be into the blue endless.
11/19/09
red mug with chocolate stucco walls, spoon
with rainbow oil swirls, the upside down
sewing box: what my insides feel like.
11/20/09
every day, like clawing at your coffin-cloth
wondering why you got to witness
what you knew you should have valued more.
11/30/09
My tracks in the snow. They were deep and
wide. They spoke plainly of my distress.
They were human tracks.
12/1/09
I am beginning to see a foggy outline
that no one can throw away the key
but me
12/2/09
My rows dry scales, eye beads
holy. Down in the fish kills.
Wet in the bush bones.
12/3/09
She drinks Airborne with Diet coke.
Thick, yellow foam floats in the dark, sugary, chemical sea.
I watch the sweating cup enviously as it slides between her lips.
12/8/09
Cars race rain
Trips through south goose
off with the lambs off with them
12/17/09
The world tells me
I'll heal once I turn my skin inside out.
Well, what's step 2?
12/18/09
if the dead were to rise, and open their eyes
would they see us now like we were in the past?
would they whisper in our ears that the future doesn't last?
1/11/10
he can pick the oldest, lamest tunes;
and no matter what, it always comes out
sounding fresh and new.
1/12/10
my ears suck sounds out of the sky
feeling the vibrations rattle through my skull
ghosts only hear sounds made in dreams
1/13/10
And what is dream crumbles in gravity
soars in water
and floats in space, infinite --
1/14/10
Dancing into the distance
of our unchartered minds
he catches up to her riding his heart.
1/18/10
Summer is a time of force,
a slap of heat that leaves a bruise
with no fixed objective.
1/19/10
the month I was born
was also the month You were created
summer is a season still so curious to me
1/20/10
But who gave July its rust name?
Genesis swells road dust and veins spread
like pigeons fanning each mapped exit.
1/21/10
July sweats next to me,
Golden skin and white, twisted sheets.
The exit signs look longingly as we pass them.
1/22/10
lost in the ether of each other’s breathing …
the sun turns her back and settles into
soft submission... a slave to the night.
1/25/10
wrapped baroquely in a boa of clouds,
the moon takes center stage
and hums the sun a summer lullaby.
1/27/10
Sprung from some forehead
myriad arrows in my quiver
primed to sail towards your chest
1/28/10
Balancing on my fingertips.
I watch them rush past my toes.
Your arrows missed their targets.
2/3/10
The square won't say, "Lash away the I don't know"
with a blink : Tenderness is a penny
banked in your own back pocket.
2/4/10
I kept waiting by the mailbox,
Until I discovered
The letter in my back pocket.
2/5/10
unsure how long it had been there
curling up against my ass … getting
damp from all my tired expectations
2/8/10
i lit your letter and inhaled the fumes.
your smoke signals warning me
to stay away for good.
2/11/10
Bright sunshine glistens off the wet pavement.
Long shadows dance past the curves of the road.
Hundreds of little workers march to their own rhythm.
2/12/10
Any time you're lost
or need a gentle push
I'm behind you, in front of you, beside you.
2/15/10
I can feel all the contrition --
no television, no
hanging lakes in the windows.
2/16/10
The rain looks like tears coming down
but it is only water --
I can and I can't take credit for this.
2/17/10
water faucet heavy we flood from
tub (damp) bed (drop) to grocery (wet) ketchup aisle don't
do not read into this
2/18/10
these frozen corridors
of my memory are slippery
and too narrow for two.
2/24/10
Satyr, centaur, unicorn horn--
am I getting through?
Is it wise to dam a volcano?
2/25/10
Russian Roulette gets a bum rap.
Every morning I wake up, I climb into the chamber
and hope the hammer finds me.
2/26/10
Perspective: thin threads connecting
shame and embarrassment to
joy and unabashed laughter.
3/1/10
The stars are in flight formation.
The pool is underwritten by the sky.
Two horses – horses! – nuzzle the dark.
3/2/10
airplane ears, silk wings, muddy hooves
a being moved inside, felt
those warm bodies are my reminders
3/3/10
corn rows recede your straight lines—
rain beads shimmy to felt puddles
I answer with mothballs
3/5/10
i walk to and from the fridge
thinking any minute now
the mystery will reveal itself
3/8/10
lessons for today may expire by tomorrow.
if there was a guarantee,
it's only that there isn't any.
3/16/10
the ringing telephone, the whistling kettle
i try to choose which one to answer ... can't
you stroke my hair - my lover, my friend
3/17/10
Here, a sea blade cuts domestics.
White rushed tea cups windy bluffs,
the walkable cliffs, and their wooden island.
3/18/10
I hold thin white porcelain between my lips,
Tilt up,
And wait. I'm still waiting.
3/19/10
it’s only deep to you because you’ve been
shallow for so long. it’s only shallow to me
because i don’t trust in your depth perception.
3/30/10
neither by force, nor plea
you see me and break me
force me to lighten my load - over and over
4/1/10
I cup my ear with the empty can
Attached by string to Spring:
"Take off your shoes."
4/2/10
after so many of years of pushing forward
without looking back … I’ve realized
how little I retained. fuck the past; I did.
4/6/10
Goodness peaks the storm
Geo no no no its more
can we just study this mound for an hour
4/7/10
I like the way you pull my leg
the truth being what it is
straight and narrow and tired
4/13/10
here you come
through the dark alleys of my mind
through the jumbled, jangled doorways of my heart
4/26/10
But our tracks in the forest, they are deep and wide,
they speak plainly of our distress,
they are human tracks.
4/28/10
Dear: I awoke your sour pun scrape thru sheets.
Abbey, won’t you rend me? Rocky
roads break / open for us.
4/29/10
break open the carton,
put some ice cream in your mouth
and make our lips hold hands.
4/30/10
generations from now … history students
will look back at what’s happening today and think:
history is boring, I’d rather be fucking.
5/3/10
it is difficult to see
in the dark of a Dusk Age and the
promise of Nightfall ever lurking.
5/13/10
note to self:
let's stop holding onto so many things,
let's make ourselves more portable
5/14/10
eat vice / dream of waking sex / lower your
expectations / form a committee and steer
them in the wrong direction
5/21/10
I don't recognize myself
with the bags under my eyes
but the voices stay familiar.
5/24/10
In that empty gymnasium
of an intention someone is busy
refinishing the floors
5/26/10
The bird outside your window is only
a message in a language you haven't learned.
What is "ship breaking"? Some people are very kind.
5/27/10
the birds are tiny.
they have taken over the church facade.
they are all giggle and flutter.
5/28/10
you are so beautiful it makes me want to cry.
i wish i could hang on to what it feels like to look at you.
but, i also wish I could slap your face with my dick
6/9/10
Ghosts: We speak electric.
The lamp off, or on again. Also the heart.
Hello - the pulse that floods.
6/10/10
you reached behind me
fashioned my spine into an extension cord
and licked it.
6/11/10
don’t you lay those dead eyes on me.
I’ve seen enough of you to know
that what you’re looking for isn’t here.
6/16/10
high school girl physics and dance --
everything, somehow, sounds fuchsia
and faster than a foxtail to freedom.
6/17/10
When you buy your shiny new flat screen
where does your old television go?
I'd love to see a tv show about that.
6/18/10
There is something so sexy
about being savagely bright,
turning your nose up at intellectuals.
6/21/10
The waves break and Florida rests
So that now and then
A sort of cross forms.
6/22/10
i try to reach for the space
not the edges of where it was or even where it is going
but the feeling of where it is - now
6/23/10
The mirror looks back holding a mirror.
Over your shoulder, a future
rushes past your door, incident ray.
6/24/10
12:35am, summer, library
a grumbling vacuum, two old women
and thirty-four glowing blue screens.
6/25/10
it’s an odd feeling to have lost all curiosity,
i just don’t want to know anything anymore.
well, except for that, but i can never know that.
6/28/10
take this and stick it in your
mind. when the idea's cooked,
the bell will chime.
6/29/10
smells line up to invade
fiery beard crabs
all for one dollar twenty five
7/5/10
Dawn is indebted to the heart
which, without strategy,
keeps every room so dark
7/7/10
We felt for the depth of the dark with one hand.
Some light caught on a horseshoe,
startling us.
7/8/10
i hide under my covers,
espresso dust coats my skin,
sunnycoffeeheataches.
7/9/10
no debauchery, no excess, no hedonism
no gluttony, no pleasure, no satisfaction
no passion, in other words: peace
7/13/10
Of minted mines the eye
Congratulates a spy
For eating Christmas Lunch with Pears!
7/15/10
Pushing paper ...
pushes me toward the edge.
Push me a little more and I might fall.
7/19/10
Your mother pulls you from the poverty
of the fire but her strength
isn't thorough.
7/21/10
summer leaves having breakfast
outside the window
of my friend's NY apartment
7/22/10
a fence has just been put up,
there has been a wind change
patrick is trying to catch it with duct tape between trees
7/26/10
your tireless search for
new frontiers always seems
to end in the same old tears.
8/11/10
Vacuum the chambers, levitate two atoms, shoot each one with laser:
each atom releases one photon. Like particles of light, they pick up the receiver.
You appear in my dream and her dream at once.
8/12/10
add one wink from a doorman,
a new nickname and
one borrowed set of keys. mix well
8/13/10
sure, I’m afraid of psychiatrists,
but I’m afraid of sociopaths too
because of their sense of humor.
8/18/10
Yesterday was just a version of today
the only difference is
the person I was lying to
8/19/10
If you're not careful
with the direction you aim it,
you might get sprayed in the face.
8/25/10
I followed the dream cat to the top
but could not get down except by helicopter.
Then we went to the beach in the basement.
8/27/10
i push, further and further
back toward origin where
time circles and lifts its veil
8/31/10
Wool fibers all over the floor ...
it's a bit like burning living bird tips
I've got all the windows lined up
9/2/10
Waiting turns my guts.
Anticipation twirls my brain.
Together they make me cuckoo.
9/8/10
(lausa) loose of speech, loose grasp, loose logs, a ditty,
looseness of mind, a loose strap to carry about one,
an improvised wedding, loose (upper) garments, loose snow
9/10/10
so he asks me, “what’s your problem with Jesus?”
and I tell him, “It’s not Jesus, it’s the christians”
and now, he doesn’t ask me anything.
9/22/10
a man passes her on the street
making her realize
she has been counting aloud
9/23/10
Autumn, quit ringing the doorbell
and then running away--
our skin needs you.
9/24/10
it’s as if my mind refused to believe
what was going on around me
so I chose not to, and now look.
9/27/10
perspiring mightily and
struggling to strike a proper pose,
this beginner's yoga ripped my pantyhose!
9/29/10
my neighbor selling uppers in the street
"evening," I say, as he ascends the stairs
but he knows exactly what time it is
9/30/10
Zip. Zap. POW!
Time goes ripping by ...
Don't let it catch you with your pants down.
10/6/10
I stand next to you, breathing.
You hold a slide of a graph up to the window.
Cosmic rays change ordinary sand to Beryllium.
10/8/10
I’ve been hiding from myself for years
but I’ve only started running recently.
and yes, there’s a big difference.
10/13/10
I can’t decide—genius or schizoid
hypochondriac and chronically ill
crucified and longing for it
10/20/10
In my childhood in Iceland,
we painted the door blue, then red.
We went out and looked up, saying nothing.
10/25/10
in the old familiar pattern,
she fashioned my underwear
into a "jock" o' lantern.
10/27/10
They’re coming for you--
looking for openings in your pores
so they can sink into your heart
11/1/10
The toilet paper wound and wound
around the elm tree suggests the motion marks
a soul might leave
11/2/10
Before, I never knew what to do with you.
Now, there's not enough of you--
time, you are a slippery lover.
11/3/10
She dreams her lashes have turned white
as Baldur's lashes (beloved of the gods,
killed by an arrow of mistletoe)
11/4/10
This ocean you tripped into,
There's no getting out of it.
I see your eyes looking for a shoreline, stop.
11/8/10
the distance between us,
so far and shark-infested,
yet your presence remains indelible.