Prisoner of Your Love

“All I do is kiss you through the bars

of a rhyme”

           - Mark Knopfler

In this season of loving

where the only thing that changes

is the temperature of the current

I am swept away each time

I catch the rhythm

of your heartbeat.

If I were to break out of this prison

it would be to run with you forever

wild through the impossible stars
that still shine in your eyes

(even at noon!)

- constellations that defy mythology

guiding us through this life

sentence.

for all Lovers

this Valentine's Day 2011

Expert Poem

If you are not an expert
you should not be reading
this poem.

Only an expert
is qualified enough
to know at a glance
if these words
have been manufactured
according to strictly regulated
standards.

If a shelf date
has not been stamped
at the bottom,
proceed with caution
for it may be an indication
that this is an unauthorized
or bootlegged poem.

If there is a shelf date
and it has expired
do not attempt to return poem
to its place of origin.
Experts disagree on the
repercussions.

 

Redwood Coast 

July 2009

Modern Love

I dreamed I was being kissed

by a man with

a tongue thrust disorder.

I must learn

to make it clear

that I am not

a speech therapist.

Redwood Coast

19 March 2010

The Hills Had Caves

Indians lived in those caves

out behind the farmhouse,

their artifacts trickle out

with each new generation

exploring the cool dark,

carrying big sticks &

fierce imaginations

on their bear hunts.

Timid beasts,

those black bears,

bold only for the brief run

of salmon berry

down along the creek.

One winter the snow melted

and then froze again,

leaving a face on the side

of the cliff.

Was it a woman?

Did she lay down those arrowheads

and lay, like I did,

across those great round rocks,

the moss a foot deep

that sweet smell only the way

moss can smell,

and dream

of being fierce?

Long Beach

1987

Collections

i tossed it all

everything i owned

everything i'd collected

had filled the spaces with

had used to anchor the past

to emotions i have no use for anymore

found myself growing weightless

in the process

found myself waking up

to the limitless space

& memories that flood it

it didn't surprise me

to find you there

pushing a hand cart

over cobblestones on christmas eve

picking up the trunk i'd shipped to boston

or that we danced that night

to the records you'd given me

for safe keeping

would you be angry

that i tossed those records too

even if in tossing them

i found so many things that truly matter

like you, still living in my heart?

while awaiting your return

i busy myself

dancing in all this open space

singing all the songs

i collected along the way

25 August 2010

Redwood Coast

Remember Me

Panther burning in the night

spinning words from filaments

& street lights’ last regrets,

it is easier to tie two cities together

with a ribbon of highway

than it is to return

the ribbon to my hair

which fell that night

while running from spooks

that lurked around the corner

engaged in menacing forms

of governance.

Easier to connect

Oakland to Seattle

after the fall of the King & Senator

than it was for fatherless children

to stay warm that winter

& we were only marching

in the proletariat parade

only working overtime

to keep up, to speak our mind

to hold our peace, bring

all ten points of light to illumination

under that accursed streetlamp.

We hoped & dreamed

we were moving on to better things

& few of us stopped for one last look

or even looked back

at the spot where X marked

the moment of our homelessness.

And in that spot where memories

fear to tread, thinly veiled voices

sometimes rise from the cremated ashes

we carry (despite reasonable objection).

They are only asking if you ever bothered

to remember them.

That is all.

Redwood Coast

10 December 2010

for Aaron Dixon