Stay busy and bloom

Stay busy, busy, busy – take roots

And bury, bury, bury them deeply

Till you’ve seen everything

You’ve seen it all.

You’ve been soil shocked

Pulled up, pulled out, dry and writhing

Making it, and faking it with honesty

Delivering a drop of sun, a drop of rain

Spider comes along and sees it eight new ways

Crawls along my shoulder and tells me secretly

I’ve seen nothing at all.

you rode on a kite

You rode on a kite

Down from where the winds catch every skirt they can feel

You made it feel real.

You bathed in a cloud

For nearly half my days you bathed and you lazed

Around in a cloud

I hope it feels bright.

Your smile is the sun

Golden streaks still don’t know where to run

Looking for some children’s face to kiss

They always miss

I shed a tear

You made it feel just like a kiss

Can you handle me?

Can you handle me?

Do you know what hit you

Are you remotely prepared for it

Are you a porch with a patio and swing

Or a deck I need to swab over and over again

Just like the rest of the platforms every set of steps has led to

Can we make it all the way through the litter scraps and waste

Decomposition may be all that we know anymore

And there are shorter vines now, receding

Draw back, line by line until

You find that you still

Can’t handle me

simply lovely

people are simply lovely
in the evening light
sitting on the patio
coffee cups at the lips
lifted
this is a picture of reality

i remember evenings
sitting in the garden, the light was pale but heavy with
possibility
i forgot those days
and now they look like dreams
and i wonder if i ever really saw those nights
or bathed in those summer days at all
if the silence can mean anything
then it ought to just at least give me a clue

tear away

tear away the old screen door fabric
that covers me from head to toe
just like a shroud
i'm not in mourning anymore
invent new words, invent new sounds

Columbus

Christopher Columbus
Your many trips across the ocean
To the ancient world
New to your eyes
There was nothing there
You took nothing from a dark man's hands
Took the pencil from his pocket and
Drew yourself a map

The best thing (fragment)

The best thing that someone like you can do for the world is know as many people as possible

The best thing I can do for myself is to know more people like you

And know them more
And let you know me