Tuesday, July 13, 2010

THE VOICE

for Ben Lerner

Let alone
the words
birds won’t say
how love works
today is a bone
pulled apart by clouds
or the way the left
receives the right in praise
depending on the guesswork of sources
or the number of swords produced
let alone the word between
each spiral-headed letter S
promising bitterness in repetition
or burned for
forty straight hours
until squelched
by doves
they won’t say
they won’t leave
they don’t have to
I won’t let them
I’m only a voice here
burning on the very rumor
of these mute birds’ stuttered approach
and a voice loves to burn
so promise me one thing
no bitterness in repetition
as the flame gutters
closed like old
movie theater marquees
dropping letters
like swords
they won’t say
they won’t leave
they don’t have to
I won’t let them

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

THE OFFICE

for Jesse Seldess

What might
be overheard
in the lover’s
heavy sleeping head
to think one pore
is as open now
as any orifice’s yawn
could easily be a song
snug in a starry cleft
I opened all of my parts
until there was everything to fold
like a sweet twitching flag
snug in a starry cleft
I felt the office
of my lover’s salute
an old song
they sing on
old holidays
I open
my lover’s head
to tug there
the gem of recognition
that is my office
or at least it’s said
to face a difficult fire
one needs force of requisite desire
but it’s not like that anymore
the breeze leaches so many
unused words from the dumb
hollow of my cheek
I can’t even speak
or in doing
find curious boats
scraping anchor
all alone
yet all together
in my gut’s
heavy acid hallway
is just to say
this is my office
my one charge and regret
that I never once laughed
hard enough to set things right
all night all night all night