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