Mid-afternoon and the world pauses;
sure nobody is looking, she loosens her girdle
and sighs: The afternoon breeze;
neither fresh nor cool, moves.
The birds doze; the dogs wash;
The old folks dream of morning,
creaking in wicker.
Mid-afternoon and the world pauses;
the cusp of pendulum between
late lunch and early dinner,
the air scented with soured coffee
and dried sandwich crumbs.
Too far along to [...]
I recover in the kitchen,
slowly rising. I sift and taste,
and feel the acrid tang
of humble raising agents.
I knead and yield
stiff butter dough between
cracked and tired knuckles.
A palindrome massage
as I coax myself into
a shape more pliant and roundly soft.
With a twitchy thumb I press
a dozen tiny wells and fill with
cherry jam;
a thicker kinder echo
of my sweet [...]
Warm and pliable, weighted beast,
A pool of indulgent, thickened ease.
Plushly, densely, thickly furred,
Decadent instrument of purrs.
Pendulum-puddled in a patient pose,
Waiting heavily on pillow toes,
Stretched out, vibrating contented,
Ruched Russian fur, rich-ornamented.
A rift; adrift;
A shaft
A draft
A raft, a craft, adrift.
A shift,
A shaft,
The craft adrift,
Refound, refit.
There was rain all around,
Your warm, steady breath,
And the happy grunts of a sleeping dog.
Your warm, steady breath
A sleeping chorus,
There was rain all around.
Downstairs, the waking shuffle
A house stirring, a kettle boiled,
And the happy grunts of a sleeping dog,
A house stirring, a kettle boiled,
A waking chorus.
There was rain all around.
Each day I take a very fine knife;
Dulled with sleep, but just a little,
And scrape away at some part of my life:
I take baby steps to perfection: I whittle.
Some lichen grows back every night,
Though it easily comes off and shows my progress,
And every day I strip off little bites,
It’s a slow, near-imperceptible process.
In tiny flakes, [...]
I.
I bury cold feet under the dog,
Ignorantly pleased companion,
Who senses not that something is wrong,
but for once something is right.
I am home, we share the couch,
She reminds me that this is the life,
So I sneeze on her.
II.
A city of cups and mugs,
Curved, avant-garde suburb
half-flooded with tea and elixirs
sprawls across the table.
Hedged with tissues
Bridged with debris [...]
She passed the blade
across one finger;
and raised a shaped arch.
Danger and beauty,
in one sweet tip,
she passed the blade.
She passed the blade
down the white finger,
towards the bitten end.
Towards the bitten end,
where exams had left
their mark. She passed the blade
She passed the blade
to me I took it
slipped it into the drawer.
And breathed at her.
She lowered her shaped [...]
The wires and the circuits
That normally I depend on,
Have begun to short-spark
And left me a little random.
My thought processes are seized
And struggle to break out,
It borders on the painful
And makes my neurons shout.
I try to simulate real thought,
Through artificial tricks,
Guzzling sugar, cakes and coffee,
Until my teeth ache and I’m sick.
None of which does any good,
In [...]
I’m calling today a sick day. I haven’t written a poem and I don’t expect to, but I’m okay with that. Hopefully lyric tomorrow.
