Understand

I don't think we ever knew each other

I think through all the talking

we were hiding in the silence

in all the omissions and secret places

you knew something

I didn't want to believe true but probably is

I think the many cards laid on the table

were a way for us to feel

but facts aren't essence

and it's always easy
to let someone else take over

to play the hand we were too afraid to expose

suggestions of truth

lead to images

and too many suggestions

keep emotions ankle deep and safe

to peel open and to let the soul be sliced

to expose something dark

people to paste shadows to 

and nothing more

or people twinned separated at life 

and nothing less

I don't think we ever knew each other

I think we looked into eyes that
weren't windows but mirrors
and shuttered at the thought

of the images telling the truth

Or maybe there's something in you

I can never understand

so I'll turn off the light in me

for you

Idols

ring the bell
arrange the petals
light the incense
close my eyes
Om

tearing up my soul
looking for it
weeping at my existence
questioning it
walking across
the silver cord that is my life
in ice skates
tempting it to save me Om

I listen to the wind in the trees
have myself anointed with oil
sip green tea
and cover myself in labels
yet it doesn't come

the satisfaction refuses to descend
no matter how hard I rub
how good I act
how much I hide Om

I cut my flesh
to find where it's hiding
it explodes my chest open
with hope of finding it
seeing love with no object
I know it's there
so I

close my eyes
light the incense
arrange the petals
ring the bell
Om

Speak to Me

So receptive to you
everything in me questions
the idea of the duo
we seem to be

I yank on the strings
of my inner being
your voice rings in echo

Harmonies were made
to emulate the staves of your voice
I close my eyes to see
life's spectrum descend
daisies bloom in your shadow

I watch for you
your appearance
like a person who
can see to the heart of mischievous child
alighting it with love

Listening to the walls grow around me
You say
speak to me
my response
your servant listens

Fuzzy

What did you think I would do
treated like diamonds
evaluated like a Pinto
dropped like a piece of molten shit

You thought because
I flexed like clay under warm fingers
you could say anything
and I would swoon
you were right
but being smart is your only strength

Leave depth to the oceans
your plumb-line
is a tack strung with spit
upon which you hung this idea
that you're the only one who knows the game

Punk little sucka
I know
you thought I wouldn't call you
by the names you call yourself
I read braille
let me touch you back

You thought I succumbed
to the weakness you hide
thought the leash was for one
the reason I still feel you is
you're still looking

So bypass me with the flint
you build around yourself
inside
you're like a fuzzy bitch
so
let me touch you back

Of the Earth

Looked at myself this morning
tilted my head forward
to watch the lines form in my eyes
practicing the smile made of silicon

If I peel back the layers
of skin to reveal the fake I feel
I think I would disappear

no matter how long the hair
how crisp the diction
how clear the intention to know myself

there's always inside me
the voice which sings to me of
my failures
my manipulations
my irrevocable choices
I rest

I don't look to my past to blame
or the various cutout faces
pasted together to create mine
I can't blame anything in my birth chart
of the way the galaxies parted
to let me enter life

falling down from nothing
a fireball of light to enter the womb
the wretched of the earth
I could be an angel fallen for my knowledge
I could be an angel fallen for a mission
to be the arch in the cycle of eternity
that leads back to peace

Strangled

Take these thoughts
from around my heart
I can't breathe
I want to be free
of these ties

I keep looking back
and getting burned by all the
radio-active truth bottled
in fond memories
lies stored away in stories
meant to keep me acting a part
I didn't not ask to play

I do not want these things
but this mind
it's locked into the story
and can't set itself free

I am strangled
I'm twisted in this history
subdued in knots
looking to the silence
that whispers my hope

Adam

He smells like
concrete and earth
conquered by raindrops
Red clay exposed
his skin
taken in lumps into my mouth
I let it crumble and seep into my pores
I want to smell that decedent and rich
The lines on my hands
collect the finer grains of his scent
I wonder if it lingered on Eve like cologne, too