When the kettle whispers
about to boil
When it is gray and almost
release to rain
When briefly nothing coheres
time out
When song words reappear
perchance
Faint sound of ringing
my ears as if detached
Late nights of loud music
standing outside
cool breeze
suddenly fresh
Trojan horse
almost
come closer
you should know
the castle of my body
not my strong walls only
Knocking heartbeat
tap resound
tickle tempt
touch
There is always
more
never enough
1.
Some people call you a shrub
Some people do not know
what they are missing
2.
Some people say you act
sensitive
I know you are
but what am I?
We are not stones
We are here sensing
one another
3.
Some people say you act
feminine
What does this mean?
That you reach
ecstatically
for the sun?
That you come
in many colors?
That you like a cool drink
in a curved glass
on a warm evening?
Nothing?
Everything?
4.
I think I like you
best in yellow
draping like a chandelier
You should wear what you want though
I should not say such things
5.
When sun rises
you are who you are
I watch you
in wonder
1.
I wait for you
burst of color
What do you wait for?
2.
You are a spectacular mess
clustered in intricacies
no one need understand
In certain lights
I know though
you too
strive for this
You triple axel of trees
3.
Do you wonder
when to confetti
fortunate passersby
Do you feel let down
when you have landed?
3.
If you could
float back up
Rewind again
upend amend
Would you
be less
beautiful then?
4.
Someone uses a leaf blower
on piles of petals
It looks like laughter
I would like to look like this
when the world wields its worst
1.
Each year I fear for you
Will you come early?
Will snow come late?
Will you not
bloom?
And then you are here
so vibrant
and so brief
A cruel affair
I long to repeat
2.
How does it feel to be
a moment?
Like unrequited lust?
Let down
lingering on
Or like the fluttering of wings
before unfurling fingers
flight?
3.
Only a couple of days later
you look so sad
The wait never worth it
4.
This is not sad
It is
what it is
Love does not happen
after waiting
Love is
what is happening
5.
Let down your guard
line my sheets with your petals
Do you know how graceful you are
when falling?
Lullabye or siren song?
Either
or
enchanting
6.
In the sticky days of summer
when your remnants stick to my shoes
I will still think of you
when I drink cold juice
A burst
to soothe my longing
Suddenly you return
overrunning my wall
with your overabundance
Dear Orchid,
I think I may
abuse you
After our careful courtship
of directions on weekly watering
and other such basic maintenance
I promptly forgot
which day I started
Each time I walk by
I feel so much guilt
that I am killing you
that I let you wilt longer
When I finally convince myself to respond
I significantly overdo it
Perhaps you are now drowning
And now you remind me
of how much dying we do everyday
Perhaps this is how other people feel
about other things
about which I am annoyed
with them
Perhaps we all are careless about some things
in our gardens
You must envy the tree outside
the rain that gets to touch her
upon which she can subsist
Though you would be done out there ever so quickly
and she too must be jealous of you
To tend and to be tended to
forever wanting what we cannot take
You canopy over
the overthought avenues
with all their right angles
carefully measured
All that
and still they pale
in comparison to you
When you brush against me
mindless petal
you make me
gentle
I meander
thinking I can learn
to slow myself
But lights flash
and I brush you off
brusquely continuing
to wherever it was I was going
desperately trying
to remember
why it seemed to important before
1.
There is something wrong
with tulips on fifth avenue
They are penned in too close
like New Years Eve
meant to be fun
and yet
2.
You are not wild
someone planted you
Even I planted you
here in this poem
Hello
3.
You are coquettish
you want to be
peeled back
I wish I could
and let you be
still you
4.
Would you let me
trope to you?
I could be sun dappled
and ready to play
5.
Oh!
Make me the sun
you trope towards
1.
Oh Ocean
are you always lost
at sea?
Do you even want
to be found?
2.
Let me call you
little wave
Get to know each
ripple and rise
its own story
apartments in a sky scraper
silence in a subway car
neighbors that never met
until
3.
I am a ship in a bottle
Swallow me up already
will you?
4.
Dark depths of unknown
let me explore all of you
that is unsure
Your many molecules do not scare me
I am an ocean too
Let me take
make
inundate
you
5.
Or do you secretly
want to do that to me?
I too can be a sandy shore
that you gently caress
when the moon rises
to the right spot in the sky
Patience
waiting
allure
6.
We both know this is a lie
I will build you castles
but I cannot sit still
7.
You make me want
to know you
Crime scene string
beautiful mind
Periodic table labels
Taxonomic classifieds
Wash away my want
to make sense
Take me
like a tide
1.
Local lake
where things go to land
you love the lost leaves of fall
the bread crusts
a father threw for his daughter’s smile
more than for the ducks
for the memory
light in her eyes
For you things just are as is
plus whatever comes
Let this be me
late at night
who you silently hope will
walk far enough down the darkened path
to skinny dip in
2.
Little stream you are always hoping
something better will come along
or that you will one day be
someplace else
You are not bold enough
for all those rapids
and yet you are not placid
Everyone wants to be there
except you
Lighten up
3.
Oh to be the ocean
Upon which so many hopes float
Bottles boats
and wide eyes by the shore
Horizon that never ends
But who holds you?
4.
River of rapids and foam
no slowing down
no one can
hold
you
Do you crave
those who swim upstream
Someone to frollic
with your currant and grin?
Or are you waiting
for someone on the shore
to capture your fancy
reverse siren call?
Or is it within the multitudes
of your power that others emerge
together you flow undeterred?
Or are you always wondering if someday
you’ll find a parallel river
to flow with?