Poet & Teacher

You hold suns without end
racing through space

each to their own
families of planets

Absorbing what was
what is being present

acceptance slow breaths
in and out here this is it

No circumference known
center everywhere

Spinning still
I want to know

if the sun is only a star
how can I do right?

I stand before you
small

arrows in quiver
unsure if you will expand

to meet my meanderings
or if I will fall

off the edge
thinking I knew

where center was
Reaching

We are tired
it is almost
the ever upcoming
when I notice
it still there

(like the windowsill plant
that flowers again sometimes
though no one took the time to explain
Flower, this is how
supposed to goes)

If no one told told the flower it were an annual
would it more likely bloom again?

If the sun stayed up
would it all get done?

It cannot simply be that we
control it
all
Too many molecules
so little space

Or if the lights went out
would we sense
one another better?

Would if I could
be a flower
be a gift
I would
submit

to you

stillness
lost logic
majestic sense

1.
If it were only about balance
this would all be easier

When sadness got heavy
you would pour in more happy and

tada!

Instead seasons change
there is wind
and memory

2.
I notice on my bike sometimes
when cars stop short

a small tornado of leaves

It’s more like this

3.
Also though
you should know
if I were a leaf caught

I’d want you to be the biker
that noticed me

I’d want to be
in your care

4.
Tempest tempt me
to not believe in balance

Make me make believe
I am allowed to be lost

in the overwhelming whirlwind

5.
During the flag football game
children on the sideline stop and say

Look at those birds
They’re making a Y
They’re making a U
They’re making an F

Yo those birds are mad talented

And I think maybe
there is such a thing
as balance

6.
Throw your hands up over head
attempt the daily floor routine again

Give in to hope that it could be
worthwhile to rehearse

For a moment let yourself imagine
you will stick the landing

Do not live in time lapse averages
of all the times you fall

Allow yourself moments

Moments only
are we all

The bubbles in the coffee maker stall
like a computer screen

though the bubbles do not know
computers

The pulp of a lemon
floats down a glass
throttled by each sip
a wave

If only
I could gift you
a snow globe
of your own

you would hate it

World in world in world
we wander

***
Fall is here
leaves are like this
blowing into the house

I sweep them out
as if there is no outdoors to attend to

Just below the surface
you only make yourself known
every so often
subtle spray of water
breathing
elusive turn
almost
so close

You remind me of all
I do not know
Mystery beneath
you play
teasing your tail
emerges
this is too much
But then you go
and all I want is you
to spout again

I sit on my safe coastline
watch and wait
wondering when to swim

If I make it past the sandbar
I would just be cold
No place to be
you you
merely human me

…
What if we switched?
…

I imagine you on the beach
forgetting about me
in your well packed picnic
Preparation has gone on to get here
but there I still am
Just a little further out

I am the dangling carrot
bait breadcrumbs
siren come hither
do not wait

On beautiful days I emerge
show some skin
coquette play
in your gaze

I am good at this
I am good at most things
if you indulge

Whale watch me
safe from your shore
Appreciate my evasiveness
and I’ll try to stay
off your direct course

It feels good to be your distant hope
I keep coming closer in
Will you touch me?
Am I baiting too much?

Will I swallow you?
Will you swallow me?

This is not cannibalism
This is different states conjoined

I need air
I need a UFO
I need gravity
I need escape
I need liftoff

I should go home

You’re too easy to reach
this is no less a mistake
Where are the whale hunters?
This landscape is unsafe

I should study harpoons
I should read self help
I should make a cake

If I don’t spout
will you stop watching?
Why have I forgotten
about drowning?

Autonomic nerves
begin their pre programmed play

Words cannot reach you
I am just swimming