loneliness is a brick mason
revisiting…
if only
how i remember
the way your head tilted
strangely off balance when
you were angry with me
and how the songs of Chicago
could make you close your
eyes and sway
if only you were here just
one more time, if only,
oh how the city shines
and the bike lane takes me around the
belly of the city
business suits walk by
staring and moving
identical parts
then there is this man
playing trumpet
and only the lapping harbor gives
a hand.
bike wheels squeal, delighted around the turn
oh how the city shines
like a girl preening in the mirror.
scents rich (or making dinner)
from the gas stove
a sizzle
[move quick –
and stir the wok, flip the
frying tofu,
while the rice pot
boils]
the table is set and your hands
folded
compliment the
napkins bowed
carefully in half
gas flames flicker off,
settle down,
scents rich then fill
noses with a quiet
anticipation
trophy (haiku)
coveted prize, she
shines like a trophy, winning,
and gathering dust.
girlhood crush, regressing
girlhood crush, regressing,
he now seems
that one cool boy who sleeps
through philosophy
(the intro class)
with the teacher who
never turns around
unless that dream of falling
snaps the boy awake
with a crash
he seems now
a distant pair of eyes
compelling me
to learn a secret – lean in.
comfort in knowing (haiku)
older, yet this now
steady like a boat turned port
heading in search of…
filling the blank space doesn’t mean you care (to a poet)
despite such a lyrical stance
he cares nothing for me
he cares only for a hurried
quickening breath
or the still life
of a sparrow who turns,
examining the ground
he does not care for my
pen hovering
or my sudden lack of trying
although he does suffer
(as we must)
finding words to create
this…
_____.
the aftermath
scattered and devasted
like how glass feels
after a break-in
shatters the street
it is –
the aftermath
that counts.
written waiting for a late train in Penn Station NYC
train station waiting on the last
late train
woman in beehive
and daisy dukes
while another in
impossibly tall shoes long eyelashes batting at
the pretty men
business travelers
wearing a path in the floor
how they tour
and turn
making deals with the air itself
and Amtrak personnel
create a new sign
yawns
and how the screeching never stops
yet it’s never right
and how the light
reflects
another group of models in beehive
so fitting before a trip
back to Baltimore
and how the light reflects.