movement towards free

i hope that one day
when i see you on tv
i'll flashback to this beginning
ramon noodles, scratched up knees

to these late nights in astoria
colored porches, city breeze
walking sockless round the corner
to see plastic, lit up trees

to these triangle
sandwiches and
pregnant pots of tea
before we split in two directions
like a bunny's crashing skiis

to these talks of will and focus
and what to feed
our dreams
how the riches that we pined for
were the times that came for free

i hope that when i see you
see you on tv
you'll be glowing from the knowing
kindly noted for your "please"

thank you for the singing
for the strumming of my strings
from the corner of my matress
comes the movement
towards free

live in twos

straw sticks
in sticky shoots
like squashed up birdsnests
to the souls of these boots

snow crackles round
the lakes frozen blue
the parts fit together
with invisible glue

we're tired of the battle
the grocery aisle's choose
the model's puckered lips
the crazy man's ques

the smokies poke their ledges
toward the plaster of the moon
crosswinds lining up the grasses
like a weaver's rythmic loom

we've got our tanks and tonkas
we've got our dirty dues
our wireless negotiations
our dusty, unused pews

the birds are kind and feathered
beaks pecking at my shoes
with their tiny tear dropped bodies
they shift my wordly views

we don't have to live in twos
mixed up story, mother goose
the workings of the inner world's
not blinking on the news

return to shine

---------------------------------photo christina poindexter


at what point
was your army built?
your tires popped?
your jewels spilt?

your mirror draped?
your eyes drawn?
your costume shed
from queen to pawn?

your windows fogged?
your horses tied?
your eggs dropped?
your wires fried?

your chapel burned?
your trial tried?
your judgement learned?
your dream box pried?

pin you villian -
the cause of blind
open tenderly
return to shine

now here's the story

------------------------------------photo susi white


now here's the story
of a place so cold palms
rubbed themselves together
to have something close to hold

the sacred sites and chapels
lost their faces to the mold
grown by the foggy tongues of liars
who left the truth untold

give us strength
to slay these dragons
give us faith
to lose control
with the smokey eyes of battle
grant us grace
to unfold

we fled from eve's garden
abandoned the knoll
where the mother served her blessings
and the angels took parole

the saints have all gone running
put down their holy poles
they poked portals in the heavens
and are slipping through the holes

fifty foot flames

you pry apart the lips
of a fifty cent lawn chair
garage sale bargain
lock jawed with sea air

there's nothing in this town
but a lost child's theater
you'd passed my house
a thousand times
though you didn't know
i lived there

why does it take
fifty foot flames
for us to walk across the street
to learn
our neighbors names

the shingles slide like playing cards
the windows melt like taffy
the door frames snap like toothpicks
smoke bitter brown as coffee

you're flushed with blush- igneous
fire fingers flick at us
we take a turn to watch it burn
a heated urn
to love
love
we love to learn
we learn to burn
we burn to learn
we burn to learn

you pry apart the lips
of a fifty cent lawn chair
garage sale bargain
lock jawed with sea air

what's black and white

what's black and white
and red all over?
a boy at his piano
with the stage lights at his shoulder

handing over his explosives
like the hunt for red october
his bench is warming up
but the world is getting colder

whispers in the night
the exhiliration of a floater
when you dig your fins into the bottom
and get high off what you told her

sifters taking flight
the gambler leaning over
checking inbetween each ivory key
for that unturned four leafed clover

what's black and white
and red, red rover
lock your arm with mine
and send your sadness right over

KISS her on the neck
and forget you ever loathed her
i'm tugging at your cuff links
falling open like a folder

dark wind

it's the first of november
you feel her moving in
to strip down your branches
to goosebump your tanned skin

she comes after hay rides
cider and pumpkins
running laps around your mouth
spit glistening down your chin

she tell you where she's going
she won't tell you where she's been
she phantoms in like dry rain
and get's you sloshed like gin

there's no line between
where she ends and you begin
taking over like a pirate
moving in like dark
dark wind

a bit of heaven

i sat to close
to the window
to your fever hot, hot
to the mad hatter's laugh
to your worry wound rot

to the soft shelled crab
to your watering pot
to the taxi's cherry break lights
to the red sign's white stop

to the jars of sugar candies
to the callosed feet of the poor
to old man picking his nose
and then opening your door

to the pregnant penguin woman
with her crinkled coat of cash
to the questions in your suitcase
you'd never move to ask

to the plastic egg dispenser
to the permanent marker letters
splashed across the faded posterboard
like whirling modern dancers

and it's all out of focus
it's all too close to tell
if it's time to change the guard
if it's time to clank the bell

it's all a bit of heaven
it's all a bit of hell
fetching your pail of water
drawing wishes from the well

lost snake

someone else in in your window
someone else is in this bed
with the mouth of a widow
once alive, but not yet dead

she's a residue of kisses
a mason jar of pegs
that you'll poke in other bodies
to numb your flashback head

she's deep toned moaning floor boards
translucent yellow legs
drawing lies from a pin hole
as a needle pulls its thread

i'll bring her shiney cherries
i'll feed her warm cornbread
i'll give her the stupid attention
one gives bright-eyed newlyweds

you make some room beside us
you write down what she says
she says
this stage is not forever
even lost snakes will shed

now i can see behind
what she can see ahead
the lingering of a love song
once alive but now it's dead

get her out of this window
get her out of this bed
she's not your lonesome widow
you're still alive, it's she who's dead

needles are fun

the night is old, but we're still young
let's archive our freedom
needlea are fun
come on let's get tattoed

eenie-meenie, what do you choose
the sistine chapel, a snapshot of the news
a patchwork quilt in pasteled hues
a mariachi quartet, an octopus

a landscape of lovely
a tribute to time
a version of the constitution
with lines that ryhme

come on let's get tattoed

we're permanent
we'll never wash off
tucked under the skin
like ancient rocks

*

the night is young, but now we're old
my puffer fish is growing mold
your popeye portrait is tired of holding
his can of spinach, his pirated gold

and oh my jesus his colors less bold
heart and thorns disappearing in my folds
the new york skyline, slouching off my shoulders
the burning bush's flame, tamed down and smouldered

we're pemanent, we'll never wash off
just under the skin,
like ancient, ancient, ancient . . . .

you've got me

you've got me eating rocks
naked and loopy
in the downtown market
dancing like snoopy

you've got me burning things
couches and tv's
huffing paint
getting high up in family trees

you've got me pinned and cornered
like a toddler's decorative border
above the trainset just left
of the fuzzy bear's shoulder
round and round and round and round

you've got me

inbetween

paperclips
butterfly hips
i lined your path
with tortilla chips

swan lake
filtered lips
suck the poison
drive the ship

we've spent an eternity
ringing out the clouds
we've spent a lifetime
squawking too loud

we've spent a season
churning the cream
we've spent a week
scheming the scheme

and now here we are
somewhere
inbetween

after the fall

i need you to make me feel beautiful
i need you to make me feel clean
i need you to mop up the messes
from where the food fell inbetween

the wall and table
ketchup, salt, strawberry balls
we're all in central park now
taking pictures with the gold dog

cedar, jelly, park bench, stall
i'll see you later after the fall
after the fall, after the fall. . . .

cantelope

hot day china town
stinky fish stinky ground
bumpy fruits floating frown
strawberry lips pointing down

the goal while you're here
is to conquer this loneliness with
the goal while you're here
is to battle this loneliness with
the goal while you're here
is to defy this loneliness with
the goal while you're here
is to take down this loneliness with
SOLITUDE

cantelope i can't elope
cantelope i can't elope with you

i've got a big job
interviews with the pope
puffy robes expensiv soaps
underpaid workers licking my
envelopes

i'm here on my own
only you understand
smiling up from your fruit stand
i've give you my soul
my highest hand
but i've got worldy things
hope you understand

underpaid workers licking my. . .

what are you doing there?

what are you doing there
with your bleeding chest?
dog eared thesaurus
neglected rest

we sing these songs
to sculpt our lives
cutting through time
with six stringed knives

why don't you, why don't you give it a rest
start. moving in present tense
leave. a fresh coat of white on your picket fence
take. a plunger to your parking lot dents

what are you doing there?

quick time lapse

the shore crackled
osprey tackled
the broken wall
where the builders spackled

the campaign crumbled
the prayers stumbled
in the paster's end zones
where the offense fumbled

shadows overlapsed
tree frogs took naps
throwing off their royal crowns
like twist off bottle caps

red canyons, raw gaps
dashboard food, handwritten maps
the desert rain tips and taps
the moments of our lives
quick time lapse

wear the dirty glove

trying my best to forget you
washing my thoughts clean
not remembering the memories
blocking the sun from fertilized seeds

been looking for a place to put it
to sore the white waves of your cream
been badgering the one who took it
who ripped the thread from the seems

the seem, it seems,
i'm not seeing your love
in all these different bodies
in the patient beak of the dove

the wasn't the intention of love
to wear the dirty glove
to claw, slash and shred up
to split open and tug

i have been looking for place to put it
to store the white tops of your cream
been badgering the one who took it
who tore the air from the seems

wait your turn

------------------------------------photo susi white

she is wildly drunk
she is wildly bold
she's the spilling cup
that you're pining to hold

she is lavishly garnished
blue flamed but cold
undressing in your front lawn
spreading open in your folds

she is child and woman
she is ritual and word
too unorthodox for breakfast
too free formed to scold

she is matches and propane
sunburn and mold
you'd like to lay beside her
but you'll have to wait your turn
and you're glad to wait your turn
and you're glad to wait your turn

grace

i'm out a bay
this thunderous day
with your compass showing me the way
my starting plate is black and faded

i came all this way to see your face
i came all this way to share this stage
i'm feeling tired and a little misplaced
oh grant me grant me grant me your grace

take me to that southern sun
oh pump me up with florida love
the summer's are a lifetime long
like unleashed dogs we're running strong

oh i fall and oh i flee
but please don't think a fool of me
this solo road's my family
one plus none makes all i need

grace

it know it's hard to live simply
with these complications of man
it know you're trying to live simply
with these complications of man

old skies, new day
it was you who taught me how to pray
i know all these things will GO. away

rambling cars and stained glass windows
late night bars and weeping willows
red eyed mars and tear dropped pillows
dark graveyards and oak tree billows

oh won't you sit me down
back in your boat in our old town
the walls are rusting the seat's a plank
the river bank's our saving grace

it's so hard to live simply
with these complications of man
it know you're trying to live simply
with these complications of man

blowing kisses to the bridges

and as your soft steps hit the streets
forehead melting from the heat
fingernails clipped into half moon heaps
preoccupied with the residue
that each decision will leave

you know, you know, love will never leave you

crumpling up a bag of pretzels
looking out the window
the fields are smearing by
a horse is waving hi
black birds peck the pie
leaving the pan naked and dry

wind blown signs
bright light blinds
blowing kisses to the bridges
that you left behind
blowing kisses to the bridges
that you left behind

we could build a house

we could build a house
where the hard parts won't hurt
pain, prick and sting
soaked up by the dirt
we had grown to take for granted

kind face, you've soured
tired eyes fixed on the hours
they're paying you too little for

rainbow cactus growing through
the cracks in the floor
bluebird swooping
through the frame of the door

pulling your attention to the outside
pulling your attention to the outside

don't be afraid to lose it all
we've dropped the weight, we've dropped the ball
this battlefield is a bad backdrop afterall
for our muffled heart songs and paper walls

we could build a house
we could build a house
we could build. . . . .

why stay here

give, give
me a reason to not leave this place
neon light bulbs and a wrinkled face
fallen arch of the ankle
big toe's out of place
mad man on the bucket seat
shouting his hoorays

make this last lap super sweet
make this the school dance
you didn't want to leave

a fresh rose on the shoulder and
a twinkle in the teeth
tic-tocking baby steps
sandwiched cheek to cheek

tie me to the front porch
anchor down the bow
catch me in your dusty mit
like the pitcher's wildest throw

i'm yours
with your reason
not to leave this place

droopy lid
tired face

fight or flight

______________________photo susi white


i've been lovin the beast that won't love back
skyscraper spine and a side walking crack
the pain of 8 million loaded up on my rack
that i'm unstrapping from my shoulders
and never looking back

you can stay here if you want to suffer
i've got fire flies to count
you can play here with the prickled puffers
proclaiming their dark doubts

this is not my dream
it never has been
i'm going home to the sandlot
where the lousy losers
win

i came here for loving
i came here for love
and big sir you're shoving
the bent beak of my dove

pullling up the cotton stripes
over our bleeding shins
at the bottom of the 9th
there's no way to re-begin

game on
game on
i can take it in the face
i'm strong

game on
game on
i can't watch this awful race
i'm gone

licking me, i'm tasting you

oh don't you worry
i'm packing up my boxes
runnning to your western vista
to lay my skin against your rocks

no hype or flurry
a long thought out route
peeling off my winter dress
to put my body in your mouth

slowing down to scurry
riding high to your ranch
bolting from the city beast
to wrap these legs around your branches

my love, my One
i never meant to leave you
my cradle, my dove
in this skyline i don't see you

my fire, my lung
my higher view
my balcony, my tongue
you're licking me, but i'm tasting you
you're licking me, but i'm tasting you

cardboard and gold

and while you're out there
making love to your wife
i'll be here writing
the soundtrack to your life

beginning with the bittersmoke
of your daddy's cedar pipe
tapering off
into a bleeding purple night

your beat box brain's
ashamed and soaked
drowing in the white
that over took it yoke

your democratic dreams
have lost their right to vote
falling from the look out tower
into the castle's murky mote

you think you're alone out on our own
closing your eyes to the one who will hold
brave overtones we're soft but we're bold
building our empires of cardoboard and gold
cardboard and gold

and while you're out there sharpening your knives
i'll be here humming the soundtrack to your life
sending the bees back to their broken hive
you don't need the sting just to prove you're alive

and while youre out there
making love to your wife
i'll be here singing
this world's alright
beginning with an overdose
of spectacles and sights
winding down with dusk's blurry light

you used to love

you used to love
with tumbling turquoise sea
satin gathered ruffles
wrapping the knee

the swooshing stance
of the venus faced willow tree
backyard pools
highschool poetry

crackiling sunsets
salt stained sea breezes
thumping dance floors
open skies and string bikinis

you used to love
with shakey scaffolding
glowing cable tv
boundary-less family
that piled like
home made jelly

you used to love. . .

sweet temporary

look at what you have
instead of what keeps leaving you
look at what you have
instead of what keeps leaving, leaving, leaving

they published the look you have her
printed an infinite edition
she'll scrub the price tag off
to reveal a clear rendition

of the love you breathed into her
on the counter tops in the kitchen
the pots and pans all watched
for the recipe of your kisses

look at what you have. . .

picking through the pawn shop
of your dusty thoughts
the film reels of your mind
are fearing dry rot

sir, i give and breathe
only for the one eye on top
like me, like me, like me or not

i'm down on heavy knee
take my family
please take all i see
sweet temporary

land locked fishes

he rode his dark horse across the open face sea
to the dolomite cliffs and the olive branched trees
in a rayon button down, pants rolled at the knee
saddle bags full, blueprints between his teeth

with sea as their haven
a liquid barricade
they separately waded
on opposite sides of the waves

king trit on
tried in spite
of the distance
to pull the two together
to rally the one eyed witness
to dredge up the rotten bodies of
the long forgotten ships
to bring the inner winds to emptiness
to resubmerge
the land locked fishes

salt soaked cliffs

________________________________photo christina poindexter

africa retracted her landlocked kiss
from the top of spain's
salt soaked cliffs
she said this closeness will be missed
dividing the seas with our isthmus bliss

he rode his horse hazily
through her tuliped field
hair pulled long, tossing the shield
that had weeded out the warriors
from the peaceman's passive yield
that shelled his vulnerable skin
from the hitman's shady deal

purging the poison
time turns the wheel
nothing here is real
nothing here is real

so slip back dear
slip back dear
the inevitable procession
of a fading mirror

africa retracted her land locked kiss

drink me instead (for ryan)

i'm finally home to find your bones
like a dropped receiver hung from its phone
the devil used the valves of your heart
to play blindfolded darts

all the furniture is pie shaped
all the furniture has been rearranged
like a bull's eye wandering off
we throw all our coins to hopeless lost causes
like a bulls eyes wandering off
we throw all our coins to hopeless,
hopeless lost causes

i'm the mark of the maker
the maker's kindest mark
engraving your paper
probing into your dark

do me a favor
don't piss on my bark
keep your lucid eyes
keep your lucid

throw out my back
rip my best skirt
you were sober when i left
the hot face of your furnace

tracing your closed eyes
the tilt of your skull's lead
the sogginess of your holy bread
i climbed inside your bottle
hoping you'd drink me instead

you'd pass out just the same
from love's shot to your brain
you'd pass out just the same
from love's shot to your brain

i'm the mark of the maker
the maker's kindest mark
engraving your paper
probing into your dark

do me a favor
don't piss on my bark
keep your lucid eyes
keep your lucid

elbows and toast

going home with the sofa ghost
escorting me home like a crumbling coast
your path smells like the towns proud roast
locking elbows, they lift a toast

begging for mercy, bleeding out the nose
bar code forhead, sent like the king's post
no one's laughing at your jokes
no no one's laughing at your jokes

gold nugget in your hand, which do you value most?
the savvy satisfaction of sparkling shapes
or the sages see-through prose?

walking home with the sofa ghost
escorting me home like a crumbling coast
its The One i make love to most
love to most
elbows and toast

chaperone

light your cigarette to the east
and blow your lung in my direction
surfacing on your skin
like an unidentified infection

rusting your cheeks red like
an unplanned erection
i'm all over
and i hope

you've licked every bottle
and found the same taste
you're rolled and rebounded
and found it a waste
because you don't know what you've got here
no you don't know what you've got here

there are two warm bones strumming guitars
i climbed into your bed this morning
a few hours after you collapsed
in from the bar sober

and wearing the monks robes
i slipped my hand under your clothes
and reached in and took hold
and i hope you know
i hope you know
it's not everyday
that frames of flesh
burn open and glow

there's a kind force playing chaperone
binding our wrists
sucking out toes
you know It knows
you know we know
we know You know
we show it

catch this cloud

papa gonna make you proud
give the guys at the station
something to talk about

momma's gonna cry out loud
give the ladies at church
something to chirp about

brother gonna catch this cloud
the locker room boys'll
snap their towels around

and with the royalties
we'll live like royalty
buy an elephant and take it town
quiet our minds, stop roaming the streets
earn emerald eyes for our cardboard crowns

papa gonna make you proud
your little girl's gonna grow up
and find her place in the crowd
giving sound
we scrub the blood off the floors
when no one's around

the wind picks up
the sky breathes in
guard your feet
and plant your ground

hold up your wishes
to the blinding sun
a golden light
to match you gown

lord i'm gonna make you proud
give the stars in your heavens
something to blink about
lord, gonna catch this cloud

empty

speakers by the pillow
in bed
boy cut panties
cigarette bread

wishing i were there
with your log cabin back
tracing the crack
the right track sac

strip softly in a
s cracked mirror i
want to show
you
want to shed this fear
i, i, i,

buried under
like a dark disease
in remission
i give you permission
i give you permission
open me up

speakers by the window
monoxide bread
the butcher finds the gut
the monastic her head

empty

$1000 bill

another day. a crusted brick on my back.
dust off the tv. restock the towel rack.
scrub down toilet. mount a round roll.
theseare the hours of my life. pay. pay roll.

squeegy the mirror, strip down the bed
check for the bible, give pencils their led
lift the couch cushions. vacuum and find
a tv remote, a constellation of dimes

a chewed pen cap, a lint covered pill
a squished up gum wrapper a $1000 bill
a $1000 bill, a $1000 bill,
a $1000 bill, a $1000 bill!
now i've something to write in my will

where are my feet
i can't feel my feel
nothing below my hips
nothing above my heels

dump out the ashtrays, turn out the lights
lock the door, click, click goodnight
to this life

soft swinging rainbows, sunny fingers of light
dump out my ashes, click, click goodnight

water machines

on the afternoon sky's watercolor screen
hang the maluable white bodies of water machines
they protect from all infections like unseen spleens
wiping open the eyes, rubbing the rust clean

invest in love, walking through the ghetto
broken glass and tied up doves
there's enough turn around time for all of us
flicking off false alarms like burnt up kitchen gloves

on the afternoon sky's watercolor screen
hang the maluable white bodies of water machines
they protect from all infections like unseen spleens
wipe open your eye child, and leave the rest to Me

love lands

i'm perched up on the wall
that you're slamming your head against
the bricks of pain and pleasure
now speak in present tense
the workings of this world
have cleared their throats
to speak their sense
blood dripping from your head
congeils into an observation bench

did you think i would leave you
after jumping the high fence
there's an orchard on the other side
where the fruits have no dents

did you think i'd forget you
after the sweet sweat for the quench
lemons, pits and apricots
the climax of spring's scent

we're going over
closer
i'll help you over
two hands

we're going over
closer
unconditional
love lands