a whisper

everyone is
catering to everyone else,
losing their own needs,
leaving nobody's fulfilled

from the civic centers,
from the church,
and from the den,
come golden shower edicts

but justice and truth
hail from infinite mothers
tradition is a dirty word
a black, obscuring, deafening eye

a girl sauntered in a sea of sprinters,
but the mob ate her whole:
i lost sight of her
and so did she.

kickin' cans down an alley
with you in my mind
reminds of fall's false hope
ill never get to the end

because i start over
rehashing, drawing diagrams
performing vivisections on our hearts
but minds can't know other minds

there used to be a pharmacy round the corner
we once sat together at the counter and nervously sipped malts
but once might as well be zero
should be zero, should have left it to the bum's 8 ball

should we think about shoulds?
and coulds and why nots and what the fucks?
how else would ought become is?
change is not a four letter word

a decade later and the heat from your voice still warms
whenever i fall away.
memories that brought salty despair in my youth,
now sing soaring arias as i look over at your sleeping body.

Mud's Allure

he looked out the window,
chin on the ledge,
arms spread out, fingers interlocked, beneath.

his expression was advanced:
it pondered.

he looked out the window
at a girl with a book,
under a tree,
admiring a boy in the mud.

he squinted to see
what he could already.

there must be something missing

he sat underneath an adjacent tree,
book open and eyes to the page;
she never once looked over

except to say, "That's my favorite book."

Incomprehensible

the day the bombs fell
i was inside coloring

stay in the lines
stay in the lines
my mother called from the kitchen
but my ears were burning
from the fire engulfing our home

i could not put it on the fridge and i cannot understand why.