Two new Poems

nausea


Troubles bubble
                    down
   into a
           sickly, sloshy sound
Stomach talks
                    provoked the rocks
   to speak from
                    underground
Whimsy wishes
                    wobble-wince
   bumbling
            dumb-sweet
                     providence
              wind, wax, wane
a sick, shaky brain
             from walking,
                     and wandering
             around

"in the breath i receive"


In the breath I receive I taste
   Uganda on the exhale of the wind.
In this breath, we share a
                              toast to life;
We all share something,
   I think.
In a ritual of words, I
   found myself with the eyes
                              of a true survivor,
   one having bled out, almost,
      left on the floor.
In a breath, I share another
   word whispered to my father,
                              who I don't see these days.
   A word of understanding understood
      through the inevitable touch
                              of the wind.
      In a breath, each creature,
   animal, plant, we are volunteering
      together,
to breathe another time.

be done

carry on that mortal fight.
Rest your head with setting sun;
moving forward toward the light,
doing that which must be done.
Sparks running from Perth to Prague
were pregnant here in dialog.
Forward's neither wrong nor right,
simply how the web was spun,
And hope may finally be in Sight,
so thus we do what must be done.

speaking

In tender moments we uttered words
That similar ears have often heard,
And in certain heads our hearts we trust,
For our souls insist to us we must.

And as our voices carry each other on
I hear our hearts in dialog;
Our tongues and thoughts, they run amiss
and I wonder which mind came up with this.

In voices exchanged between our friends,
We bind ourselves to all of them;
And in all my words on every tongue,
I find myself in every one.

Ash, Dust, and Embers

Sifting through ash, dust, and embers,
In awe of how the fire had rendered
and scewed this old place--I can't remember
How our house even burnt down.

Confused whether to invest in joy or sorrow;
For building and burning always changes tomorrow
So at least extend your hand, for I'm sure I could borrow
any help in leaving this town.

Finding our portrait in ash, dust, and embers,
and in spite of ruin, you make me remember.
What a fool I've been to again surrender
To what just will return to the ground.

A Student

A student who's swallowed in

  his own institution.

He comes up with problems,

  but can't find solutions.

Every thesis he's thought,

  he's wrote down in blood.

But he can't seem

  to write down Love.

I'm a Travelling Man

I'm a travelling man

who stays in one place;

A frantic sprinter and a runner

keeping perfect pace.

Never tripping or trapping,

pictures keep snapping;

Seeing that tired old smile

on a weary runner's face.

A driver without a license,

a singer singing silence,

A fighter without violence,

and I leave without a trace.

So I'm a travelling man

who never really moves,

Muddling through evidence

that I never try to prove.

A runner and a rambler,

a whiskey ridden gambler;

Cuz I can do it all right here,

because there's always stuff to do.

The Tide

Our mouths open and close

like the rhythms of those

Waves as they crash

and crash on the shore

Forth and back and back and forth.

Like the push and pull of the tide,

We are happy to leave and happy to arrive.

Lost at sea by the touch of your hand,

a drop of water lost in the sand.

Knowing I'll evaporate and rise to the sky

We are happy to live and happy to die.