If I close my eyes
Will life speed up,
Or will this drowning nightmare disappear?

If I stare longer into peaceful space
Can I take the place of that shining star...right above my head
Free of pain,
Free of aches,
Free of paralyzing thoughts,
Free to touch the skies?

If I close my eyes under falling rain
Will it wash away all the purple hues from my bruising skin?
Will the bruises vanish
Leaving me untarnished?

I will trust in You
While you're holding me
Bringing me to WHOLE
I will someday soar
Under golden skies

Once again to run
While the miles shrink
I will pass this trial
I will conquer all with YOU by my side
YOU will keep me strong
Help me face this thunder as I hit the floor

When
Tomorrow comes making all brand new
My body shall heal, so that once again I can run through rain washing all this pain
I will run through fields,
Fields of marigold, the scent of HOPE
Replenishing my soul!

You
Can't
See
My
Tears
In
The
Rain

Snow plows beeping
Reverse whine and scrape
Swirling blizzard of waking—Strange
in this place where
boredom banks both snow and cold
Are my eyes running?
After all
there's a stiff wind, and it’s 18 below....

Pictures and phone calls make up my family
Stray cats eat suet I leave for the birds
who make names for themselves in sunlit bushes
Love these more than...

my hearse of a job

where that ice cream vat—slipped
smashed
my sodden dish-doin’

fingers    against     sink

Pain mounts its insurrection!
Ambushed!
from every direction
Fainting in steam
Squeezing my eyes    
till the blood shuts my brain-failing
Down my wrist
all over
the front of this rubber apron....

Someone hates me somewhere

Someone found me more tenacious
than a road-**** skunk!

I eat    I drink    I work    I sleep
between these vicious icicles  


-18F = -28 C

Her shoulder rose like the moon
above the black velvet of bolero jacket
She took his arm, his eyes--
An apogee
She took the room
in reverence

So slowly
shed the mountains
shed the light
hand to touch their wonder
Gazing after
her noiseless ascent
which never happened
while they watched....

Pearls—
roll against warmth
luxuriating offspring
cool encircling
contents iridesce
their energies’ warning:
Nothing quite that simple
Nothing quite that still

Nothing like the opulence
on the Proud Eve of catastrophe

Pearls—
caught in the lining
of what never happens the first time....

She heard them before she saw them
rip their orbits!
fission her universe!
in the mezzanine of the symphony hall
Pin ball in the Fun House
Bingo bounce
off—
the hardwoods of space....

Universal Theory of Scatter?
Even now I can still hear the clatter
of their round smooth souls
in the doorways of distant relatives

How could I know?
You would condemn me
to find them all?