Valentine

One day we'll stretch our pregnant bellies
and strained throats toward the sun.
Hands grasping our own love handles,
and ideas of new ones all tangled up.

Calling all friends,
when will we raise our babies together?

Should I call Joanna and tell her not to worry?

I'd say:
Speak
A high heart
with string you hold.
You know what that is?
"That's precision,"
a man behind you might say.

Time in not mine

Time in days of gravel in toes,
like when will the next bag
of Chips Deluxe Cookies arrive?
(two weeks)
And how long will we make them last?
(a day or so)

The waiting for things beyond fingers
now less for edibles
and more of intangibles
like
when will it be easy?
(two more years some say)
And how long will we last hanging on?
(a question I see resting under someone else's fingers).

Those things all out of reach,
delicious when someday mine.

Specimen

A twisted and growing
flattened out and ordered.
The bigger one holds
his little
still.
And the dead things
curl
and go somewhere
piece by piece
I guess.

Canister

Finger nails painted white,
flood gates,
or
the other day gone.

The spirals around
touch
instants together
lightly
somehow.

Keeps

Pickled herring
and soft broken halves.

Are they soft fish?
Are the notes bent?
Will the bones hurt going down?

and from the end of the bench

i heard someone else's name called
i waited still
then stood to leave

go on

to think about the room for everything that's coming
leaves space for this
to be only this

for EMMA

emma
if you're reading this
i miss seeing your brainheart
spilled onto the internet
please write again

bent over and reading

your face leaned over
was an upside down mountain
some sleeping man in spain
of rocks piled up high and worn away

new sound

the sound i heard in the water
with my one ear in the tub
after you flushed the toilet
and walked out
was long creaky water wind
all around me and warm

Broken promises/bloody nose

There's a scab inside my nose.
Each day the promise I make to myself not to pick it
is a broken one by 10 in the morning.

this (sage bush) we name

we're
in a rainstorm
squirting
out the answer.
about to
get the money.

new
words came back to me
from the
melons
of the basin:
the free canals,
the virtually still mouth,
the river burst across ancient lava -
would make giant every other

(a collaboration with Guess Stardust)

advice from dad (taken)

start with the smallest mistake
breathe in and say
" "
again&again
(not) the end

tails and heads look up

moved among left behinds
thought best of intentions
the tour guide knew so much
he was not afraid of the sticky traps
but for us or for something not seen
he picked a strand from the ceiling
dangled in front of our eyes
he told us things we wondered about
like the glowing was from the worm's butt
and not the beads dropped from there
one by one
and like they were watching us
like we were watching them

Heavy sleepers

Heavy sleepers desu.
The u is silent
like the still life moving slow
of men on mats and sleeping
and blankets left to make mountains
or rolled up
with out them.
One reads for a little while,
but doesn't last long.

Two

It is hard to imagine only two
with legs of chairs
or bobby pins.

Almost

The other part of the room is where
the things that didn't happen stay.
It takes time to see that they are almost there
looking from the side the way it is.

On body press

Look where you're looking
to see me.
There are bodies pulling apart
behind you
because they made them.
A long ponytail hangs
on near your shoulder blades naked.
You press the camera closer to you
and look farther away.

In a movement towards

When teeth align
there will be no more fights
within.
Connection of one to the other
produces a sweet nectar
near unknown.