you knew me on that high hill

for arti boyd

you knew me on that high hill
shoulders back, no blood spilt
moving 'cross the great lawn with the fawn's free will
painting on the windows, singing on the sills

you knew me with young bunny feet
bouncing ears, tutu heat
crown of jewels, plattered cheese
watercolor recipes

remember me like that wet july, like tattoed sheep
with your cardboard cutouts three layers deep
with the fireflies' horny streaks
free as cartwheels, fireworks and
borrowed sheets

rolly polly

rolly polly won't you show me what I'm worth?
this pitch fork and shovel are bound for trouble
they've lost the earth
the moon is a poster child
bare boned and bravely wild
can't take her to church
we bundle our sage and thyme
pour the milk, light the fire
where sadness lurks

i traded my lover, friends and brothers
for thorns and chirps
exposed my secrets
told you you could keep it
where it hurts

this disaster has lead to laughter
and peace of mind is the torn flag I'm after
the golden chime of an untouched chapter
pull your soul down from off the rafters!

rolly polly she kindly told me what she's heard
she said the strongest empires, crowns and high childs
depend on dirt
the jetplanes and runaways
can't survive on words
we'll invite this pile up,
this car wreck, and sour luck
until we all take turns

321

3, 2, 1
ready or not 'cause here i come
but you always run the same
you say things are slow to change

water finds rock
pushes itself over top
but you always flow the same
you say things are slow to change

but the torch is coming
the kingdom's crumbling
the strings are humming
the soldiers summoned
and they all know your name

the catcher's fumbling
the truth is stumbling
the plates are rumbling
the cards are tumbling
won't you help us to change

surge and swell
align your forces with the rhythm
of these yells
this hobo heart is deep
keep its begging bowl of the streets

exotic birds

solitude is a blessing
solitude is a curse
a relief from noise and static
a blank canvas to make things worse

kiss me and silence these words
the angels and the demons
are on my swing set taking turns

miss me
the distance pulls and burns
the rainstorm of my memory
blocks the sun and churns


so this is how we learn
neglect to wash your soul,
you grow a victim to earth's germs

so this is how we learn!
the capture and release
of exotic birds

here i walk alone

sidewalk sidewalk
pavement pavement
whiskey for your entertainment
porcelain fists and
false engagements
here i walk alone

gutter trash and moldy basements
titties for your entertainment
shun me stone me
for my placement
here i walk alone
here i walk alone

fly me home
fly me home
'cause here i walk alone

broken brass
and sour emplacement
blood baths for your entertainment
sugar stack sacks
those who claim it
here i walk alone

fly me home
fly me home
here i walk alone

taking off

i loved the world
but the bridge is broken
frosted glass
and shiney tokens
marbled halls
feathers molten
gears and bolts
comfort chosen

comfort in the ticket
that dangles from that line
that line that you ink out
and methodically plot the time

comfort in the widget
that sensually pours
your wine
that wine that you swallow
and feel you're in your prime

i'm taking off
i've seen it all
the fireworks,
the outlet malls
this tiny cell,
is six feet tall
the net we've built
calls for fall

jet lagged

jet lagged
peanut ledge
plants are wilted
corn in fridge

sun's rising down
moon's setting up
we're long past young
but not grown up

metro card
mustard square
city noise
no one there

eye contact
haunting, rare
no harm yet
but be prepared

take me take me
take me there
son of osiris
union square

day by day
wear and tear
in the darkness
nails and hair

more than enough
swap and share
feeble, wicked, wicker chair
doctors playing truth or dare
cockled mouths
froth and swear

furious fire

furious fire
flowering wire
you bring her to your mouth
you bring her to your mouth and then retire
her unemployed heart's for hire
she's signed your silent auction
and she wants to be the buyer

you need her in your fingers
tame her quiet wars
chest pressed gainst her ribcage
explore the light of her open doors

shadows swarm the lampshade
blood and breath collide
offer to her altar
death and life walk side by side

the opportunity to feel rich
comes from the vacancy of being poor

the arrow attacks
overlap of spine and gap
in the refuge of your love
i win my losses back
climb in the tower
where the brain rejects its fact

shadows swarm the lamp shade
blood and breath collide
what's the point in life here
without something good by your side

can't get away

fix your gaze
upon the blaze
that is burning in the hills
it's crimson, rust and saffron
brick with fleshy pumpkin gills

breathing like a panther
panting with free will
taking taking over
firey engine full lipped frills

you've tapped the empty faucets
you've payed the piling bills
but flash backing to his lashes
surges up and sparks
your chills

you've painted by the number
soaked your sins in heavens lake
but the gnats in the outfield
joined their bodies, built his face

soft bird

soft bird
brush up against her
she's fallen in a hole
rocky walled and thorny
nursing the prayer flags pole

the dirt is damp and musky
the mud a shell lined hole
swish your wings across her forehead
feather please her earthbound bowl

we all have touched the bottom
whiskey stained yellow breath
bitter broken batch of blueprints
our bridge collapsed into a fence

so leave your bramble and your eggshell
your perch of prospect and polite
lift her up to smell the heavens
teacher he not to fear the night

gone to war

she sat in your back yard
wrote til the bugs got bad
something 'bout jesus
and how you're the best lover
she ever had

she came to the window
felt the light fall on her face
the view was vague and familiar
saw your figure taking shape

hold down the fort
he's gone to war
tend to harvest, water the corn
'til we find out what all
this fighting's for

there's a rotten hole beside me
a portal in the floor
a pocket in the cosmos
to hide the things
that she ignores

there's an old barn on the roadside
overgrown and rusted gray
the wind pulled its door off
layed it down in its own hay


hold down the fort
we've all gone to war
tend to harvest, water the corn
'til we find out what all
this fighting's for

my smile broke the rainstorm
a tree grew out of your head
til the cops came and found us
we broke the wine and poured the bread

and when i fingered my top button
pushed my wet hair to one side
you looked the other way
politely lowered your eyes

hold down the fort
we've all gone to war
tend to harvest, water the corn
'til we find out what all
this fighting's for

pick up the guitar

songs of gypsies and wilted sunflowers
dried blood on the dashboard
cigarettes in our rivers
a polar bear and his melting foundation
falling asleep on the couch

i'm in your arms
sighing

still dripping
bathing suit hanging
in the shower
well water
well in these waters

strumming to the
flea bites and chickens
the smell of composting oak leaves
a purple egret scratching her head
with a nobbed stick leg
a frog hitting his note
slowly slowing

sip it
sip
drip

in the eye of the storm

shuddering
collapsed in you pack
like an earth shaken
adirondack
drafting the monsters
like the pen of maurice sendak
you pointed your bow towards
the forehead of the sea
and vowed you'd never come back
but the dirt swallowed
your name
spewed it up like a smokestack

now finding inner peace
is like that slippery sliver
in a haystack
but you're not a farmer
it's been a long time
since you've touched the grass

you're living your life
with the freedom of a hall pass
out of class
wuth the home room clock
tic tocking you back

it's the sharpening of a stone
a baby's mouth, a phone call home
a festering soar, a well licked bone
we're singing our song
in the eye of the storm

invader, phantom cloud

who are you?
invader, phantom cloud
thinking my thoughts
from my ancestors ripped bow
double parked in the edges
where idling is not allowed

an ink blotch of criminal
present but subliminal
overcasting but minimal

we'll feed you an empty book
a fall on the face
where the witnesses try not to look

we'll feed you a tongueless cook
lock you in the closet
make you guess what we took

we'll weaken you with running
run real real fast
with the spark that attacks
when you want your life back
you want your life back

who are you?
invader, phantom cloud
thinking my thoughts
taking over, foreign crowd

it's all down hill from here

it's all down hill from here
the battle is over
it's all a pill you wear
to take over and over

i left you all my notebooks
and video confessions
my young faced rock star looks
and monday night sessions

then went to the river
slipped into her open mouth
sank into her barefaced body
in the crooked cradle of the south

it's all down hill from here
this song plays over and over
i was born an alien,
an airborn rover

i've disengaged from the bar chat
from your barn feed stover
i've retired from your ranks
from the ship of your stern drover

and it's all down hill from here

moth

i see you flapping at the light
you've brought your fragile troth
the residue of your love song
your soul's champagne and froth

i see your micromovements
your salivation for the broth
that separates your tiny island
from the horizon you walked across

i make out the outline of your body
camouflaged against the cloth
laid out to plate your supper
a meal to acknowledge your loss

you've given all of your beauty
your strings of poetry and moss
that you've strung from all the branches
in the paper shapes of moths

medicine

to remember the feeling of dirt and dance
i crawled into your farmer hands
your unsheltered earthworm romance
before the war and corn in cans

to remember the smell of swollen rain
i bottled up your december pain
then set it in the window's frame
til it was set free again

to remember the freedom of an unshoed foot
i came and found your flat tar roof
a fist full of banjo, a line well put
caked in my ears like a chimney seeps suit

you gave me medicine
you understood
the faces in the corner
the rotting of wood

you gave me your medicine
you knew i could
in the sea of madness
deliver my good

this is sunset, this is cart

this is sunset
turn of earth
tangerine
smear across the heavens
like a dream you've longed to see
drawing up your eyes from mouth born lies
drawing open
your sing song heart
a tapestry hung from the stars
a nursing ground for a fertile start

start your chugging engine
this is fire, this is cart
leading forth the masses
two wooden wheels
a platform part
climb up to its center
project your minor, major sharp
shipping the seeds from thieves
and handmade sleeves
the swift toss of numbing darts

this is sunset, this is cart
this is fire, this is heart

time, time

I trust that you know what you are doing
shovel digger, metal claw
dropping in from the heavens
with no forwarning

you've plucked the green ones early
infant faces
under ripe and
still dangling
please have patience

time, time
it's not the time

i bow to your clearance
been all wiped out
we're back to bread and water
promise, fake out

there's a yellow mother in the sky
she would have grown it
would have tried
but not the time
it's not the time, time, time

and i trust you know what you're doing
head selector
cosmic chime
dwelling in invisible corners
drawing shut
the blinds

now's not the time

how much longer?

i sat down
with the one who made me
he told me about time
before my existence
about horse drawn carriages and smokey distance

i asked
how much longer?

this room has a melody
and then no breath at all
this town has a felony
turns its head when i fall

tell me, tell me
how much longer?
i don't fit into these clothes at all
a swollen heart
a tattered rose
hanging forward from a stem
that grows and grows and grows

the feeling on the inside
is the one that i chose
i know, i know
but how much longer?

the ring

i retract
into the icing of a cake
in this unexplainable bakery
of limitless love
and fact
wedged between the cupcakes
and the sugar free attacks

it's a sprinkle, sprinkle, hack, hack, HACK!
a pinch of salt
a cavernouse gap
a laminated mennu
a rusty tap
tap you on the shoulder
slow you down like sap

and i'm boxed up for your wedding
i'm presented to the queen
and for all the micro celebrations
celebrated inbetween
for the minute of your creation
bringing unseen into seen
for audacious invitations
the handing over of
the ring

thinking of rocks

today i'm thinking of rocks
at the water's edge
like soot caked pots

i promised not to stay here
but i guess i forgot
i promised not to cheat
but i forgot what you had taught

treating each day
like a page
of connect the dots
joining the numbers
to see what we've got

my pen has ink
my axe has chop
but the essence of this heart
has never been caught

just passing through

passing through the dark one's tunnel
we have no payment yet
they've given us a bone to share
a threat to raise the rent

we sit around the breakfast table
with the potential of blank checks
a ball of twine to hang our hats
a chip to place our bets

careful baby it's a slippery step
a cloud of traffic
a beating chest

a bun with ketchup
an unfair test
the fawkward filler
of an unfamiliar guest

i walk along the river's face
a flat and snaking blue
she shows me the color of my hair
makes my interpretation new

we get along very well
a wet reflecting view
she says don't invest in this world
we are all just passing through

more clouds

can i lay broken in your arms?
is this the place to do it?
have i crushed all charm?
or are you wading through it?

i'm not myself here you see
a ghostly departure
of what i used to be
a cage in the places
where i once flew free
a change in the pace
of natural sincerity

these snapshots and stabs
aren't really me
is it okay?
does it drive the tenderness away?
does it catapult your plan to stay?

more clouds
than you'll ever know
more shrowds
then i'll ever show
teach me how to dance through it

you can't have my lunch money

you can't have my lunch money
i need it to eat with
for corn bread and honey

you're coming at me
like a foul hand of rummy
i'm not the bug-eyed bruise here
i'm not the twitching bunny

i used to be a painter
i used to be a gun
barrel loaded with a vapor
that would unveil drowning suns

i used to be a beggar
used to be a nun
footprint on my forehead
content with my rations

i used to be a cross
i used to be a pun
cracked the double meaning
to find out what i've won

you can pounce me from the backside
karate chop my tummy
but the challenge of this draw's
for you to drop your load
and love me

let's sit around

let's sit around
and be pragmatic
lube up our egos
like a barel of chap stick

burn up our fuel supply
with dark beer and slapstick
bury our treasure then
count our steps to map it

the wind is whistling off shore
seagulls glide by
like black and white boomerangs
across a salt flaked sky

whales wash up
become weighty
blubber sigh
time feels timeless
time slips
by

mr. green

mr. green proclaimed
when he was just sixteen
that he would have the rest of us
work his loud machines

how can we blame him
for his efficiency?
for his well used thread
for his clean kept knees?

how can we hate him
for his tossed naivety?
his easy lane
his undone deeds?

turn the gears
sweat hair no relief
the tic tocking of the blood clock
overpowers our hard wheeze

while somewhere on a blue
beach stretches mr. green
with his green eyed martini
and his stress free spleen

money fans his forehead
carried in on island breeze
the fine example of a man
who had the courage to receive

vital link

for steve
in the settled aftermath
of your late attendance
i take a tour of your leftovers
and collect them like presents

your button up polo
deflated like a ghost
an improvisational abstract rendering
of its once naked host

your hair in the sink -
the dark vein of a corpse
an onyx curl
against white virgin
porcelein

your lone gray sock -
an elephants trunk sunk
under the ruffles
of the bed's bottom
bunk

the sheets where you slept -
a crinkled cotton cove
a fleshy embryo
taking view from above

these are your memos,
your sticky notes
stuck
bright and yellow
like butter colored
ducks

this is your crumbs trail,
your dna and ink,
your unseen to the seen,
proof of purchase,
vital link.

star craving

none of this is us
a glitter spiked tiara
a flakey fiction
crust

none of this is how
we smooth the jagged peaks
we calm the maddened cow

none of this is why
we made the rubber chicken
we wear the patterned tie

none of this is what
we signed up for in the beginning
why we left the holy hut

none of this adding
to our fortune, free love, flight
with the covers on our lanterns
we're caught star craving in dark night

crayola spring

watch how nature spreads her seed
millions cast out in between
the cracks in sidewalks
the weathered shoe
sticking to sweaters
like a pioneer's glue

lifted by wind
to foreign places
hard skinned shells
without their faces
tiny blueprints
start up kits
next generation
keystone pits

a selfless shot
a super spree
a sacrifice for the continuation
of the next round in need

a plunk in the gutter
a snack for the sea
an itch in the creases
of a lover's twisted sheets

a grain for dark corners
a fleck for the beak
of a tomato feathered cardinal
flying through
crayola spring

so pass out your prism
your poetry and prong
hook the hungry wanders
hot press your pleasant song

invest in life
submerge the murky swamp
pass out your template -
a descending message
on and on