you know me as a stranger

This Is How They Talk

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:01:42 -0500

There’s another part, always,
that doesn’t want to go,
a shape more practiced
than my humble sincerities,
my tilted resolutions.

I forget to relax my knees,
That I should soften my jaw,
take lessons from the glass,
from the sidelong blurs,
and oblong silhouettes;

take in the everyday words
That clatter around my body.
I should brush against these threads,
learn their girth and texture.

This is how they move,
in great thrusts, driven
by asteroids and thunder.

This is how they talk,
in echos and gasps,
looking right at you.

"Can you take comfort in the reliability of your regret?"

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:38:55 -0500

“Can you take comfort in the reliability of your regret?”

"I used to believe that people never change, but I was a different person then."

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:22:44 -0500

“I used to believe that people never change, but I was a different person then.”

"I will momentarily relax the furrow in my brow, while looking almost directly at you. That is how..."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:31:00 -0500

“I will momentarily relax the furrow in my brow, while looking almost directly at you. That is how I’ll make it obvious that I welcome you.”

"Every time you tell me a story of your day, I wonder why you don’t give it a title, call it a..."

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:33:20 -0500

“Every time you tell me a story of your day, I wonder why you don’t give it a title, call it a poem.”

Timber

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:06:21 -0500

Kicking rocks in a wind tunnel path

A path I never walk,

The domain of busboys with cigarettes

Of foggy file clerk windows.

Something wobbles in me.

It’s probably the heat.

I never am right for the weather.

Walking on Fifth I watched

The city buildings drifting

Over one another,

And I fell out of place,

Suddenly a child,

Pulled into the red and black boxes,

Shut away in the slanting light-

Having known only open fields-

To pine away for my boyhood,

Like it’s a place I can return to.

My youth is a railroad town;

I scrape my heels on a gravel road,

Shewing the droning insects,

Leap a shallow ditch

To swat aside the timber

And find a hidden pond

That maybe no one knew was there.

"I’m like three people: one talking another out of ever accomplishing anything, while a third..."

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:19:00 -0500

“I’m like three people: one talking another out of ever accomplishing anything, while a third steps in too late and berates me for listening to an idiot.”

Require the Mountain

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 23:05:00 -0400

It’s surreal to see my father

behaving like an elderly man.

Even now he doesn’t look the part.

The grey is only just settling

into his proudly groomed-back hair.

But he feels closer to his end

than his strong jaw conveys.

He anticipates it eagerly, prefers it

over his rusting facade of life.

He bought a pistol some years ago,

for protection he said, but I think

he had only one target in mind.

I think a part of him thrills

at the turn his body has taken.

Finally a view to the end,

a release that won’t require

the mountain of courage needed

to draw back a small crescent of steel.

"They’re just thoughts. You don’t have to mean them."

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:35:39 -0400

“They’re just thoughts. You don’t have to mean them.”

Heavy Rail

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:55:00 -0400

Heavy Rail

Photo

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:04:00 -0400

"Life wouldn’t be so hard if we all got together and agreed to go easy on each other."

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:47:00 -0400

“Life wouldn’t be so hard if we all got together and agreed to go easy on each other.”

Falls

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:16:00 -0400

Don’t turn your eyes

You’re here to keep me safe

From the falls and breaks

And trains and wolves

I know will come

You’re invisible to me

But don’t be so bold

I can always tell

When the breadth of sky

And weight of the sun

Are meant just for me

"If not for a well-shaped skull, I would never have known the joys of mediocre love."

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:27:00 -0400

“If not for a well-shaped skull, I would never have known the joys of mediocre love.”

Photo

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:36:00 -0400

"People across the world from you are thinking warmly of you at any given moment. You could walk for..."

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

“People across the world from you are thinking warmly of you at any given moment. You could walk for miles into the trees and never be alone.”

"It’s better to indulge a man who might be lying than to deprive a man who might be starving."

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:55:00 -0400

“It’s better to indulge a man who might be lying than to deprive a man who might be starving.”

Language

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 16:51:00 -0400

I might as well talk about the rain.

I sat at the cafe, Amici,

Backed into the corner

By the backs of heads,

No more or less judgmental

Than any other surface.

A college-age girl sat

In the opposite corner,

Reading a book

In a black square of leather seats.

There’s nothing like the pink half-light

And a pretty Italian coffee

To bring out the colors in a woman.

I watched through the disused door

By the sidewalk tables,

As the rain-soaked streets slowly dried

In the pale cast of the cloudshine.

I’m a little disappointed

When the sun returns.

There’s something sad

About watching the deep brown

Of the rich anti-stone

Fade into the unembellished greys

Of every day.

So I sat watching the patchwork patterns

Rising to the blacktop,

Like a language,

Spelling out the fallen secrets

Of the dreaming motorists.

"I had a dream wherein I easily befriended a woman. If you and I were on the same side of the pond, I..."

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

“I had a dream wherein I easily befriended a woman. If you and I were on the same side of the pond, I would no longer need to dream it, and difficult things would be easier.”

Safe

Mon, 30 May 2011 01:55:00 -0400

Years have passed.

But it hasn’t gotten easier

To say what it was

That I couldn’t reach.

You were too beautiful

To walk alone.

So I kept you safe

On the brown city streets

That threatened to absorb you,

A colorful drop

Of windblown frailty.

I knelt beside you

And held up your hands

To explain their beauty.

It was the first time I touched you,

And you smiled

As if you shouldn’t.