unfinished business between the lines

everything green turns black
when a room fades

from illumination

to: i am not ready
for you to come calling
asking for your
pied piper's penance
in exchange for

you

will not catch me
with the three corners
you have in mind.
you will need

more than everything green

turns black
when a room fades,
and illumination becomes

the chandelier

has no business
on the street corner
at this hour
and neither do i
which is why i'm here
waiting
for everything green to turn…




wb

learning about love

we were talking about the skin

the professor
came to the topic of glands

“several different types of sweat glands…
apocrine sweat glands are located in the armpits, groin, …
secretions…
body odor…
active during emotional sweating and sexual activity…”

even in a room full of adults
adolescence is never far away

usually in the back seat
driving

the class protested with laughter
“B.O. doesn’t turn me on!”


i sat with a quiet smile


all i could think about
was the old t-shirt
you sent to me in the mail
when we lived 6 states apart




wb

just black and white noise

and here it is
on the front door step
on the other side of the screen

yesterday has arrived
with the newspaper
     in black and white noise

the discomfort of contentment
           did give birth to this

and my contractions,
they bore their purpose
even in the absence of the inebriation
of an Icarus myth in action

and here i was
believing
it would never come
…never become a yesterday

that i would remain
in a collapsed lung of a day
when a sky fell to an earth;
an aerial membrane meeting an earthen membrane
their deflated tissues giving way
resting on each other
like someone else’s love
on top of someone else’s lover

and the two touched
who were never supposed to meet
much less
touch
...like that

punctured and drained
of their obligatory atmospheric pressure
they came
...together


and i couldn't breathe


and i believed...
i couldn’t bear it

but today
that is news.

a story
 already told.

and sitting on the front porch
with the newspaper
it is written
and old
and just
...black and white noise




wb

whywhywhy is a-political

even i
wonder why
i even
wonder why
i
wonder why

when no one else seems to be concerned
with anything that isn’t why
their why is why

when does it begin
to be the start
of something else

something other
than an end
to a means
to a mode
of transportation
to arrive
at the mean
the median
or the mode

who will you be
what will you do
when who isn't you
anymore




wb

dear swan,

a never
an always

      a forever

we know
these are reckless promises

bricks stacked
without mortar


this is no static world
we wander on

we would be fools
to house our insecurities
in these precarious castles


only the fickle finger
can build such monuments.







wb

directions

a passive transport
portends progress

a new location
for old dilemmas

to move the plaque
i must remove myself

a passenger
in the wheel wells
of the axis
is still
still




wb

petals in the bayou

flowers float
while their color lasts

i'm sure there is
     a scientific rationale

(maybe something about oxygen
     and chloroplasts)

but i'm looking at
     the cosmic one

a bigger picture
of this little ripple





wb

on the wall