4.17.06

 blue eyed boy, you’ve been roaming
down all the corridors
that the other inmates tell you
lead between my door and yours
but they’re only playing pranks:
it’s so easy to fool the sane
who believe against all evidence
things can be twice the same

 4.20.06

 the photographs
the looking glass
the lilies dying
in the hall
the way none of
the things you feared
came to pass
after all

 4.26.06

 stand with me in the sun
outside our door
while all the flowers grow
wondering what they’re for

 in the parking lot outside
a pile of ice
talking to itself
as it melted in the night

 5.2.06

 happy birthday,
old friend
I wish you nothing
but the best
some people say
love conquers death

 5.3.06

 Vicksburg

 all they have is history
the bones lying in the clear streams
the grass that springs up every season
and dies with just as little reason

 5.5.06

 a mile is only a mile
it can’t put up a fight
a while is only a while
not an entire life

 5.24.06

 no one had to tell him:
he already knew better
than to tell her that day she said
that they would never be together
that never’s just another way
to say forever

 one hundred miles,
and every one of them
another song
another cigarette
another day forgotten
one hundred miles
and at the end
the lid creaks on your heart
and in the new city’s twilight
the stowaways creep out

 Call it wicked, or call it free
call it honor, or call it greed
but cross that line and suddenly
you know you’re in a new country

that’s a cowards game
he would always say
but how could he have known
that not all cowards all the same
and when his moment came
he’d lack the strength
to turn away?

 6.9.06

 it is only fear and weakness
that keeps me here
I catch one around the throat
the other by the ear

 6.19.06

 what was that other summer like
the one where you and I
sat at the bottom of the sea
watching the ocean liners dive
to their rest on the blue sand
the port they’d never leave again

 7.22.06

 just let your mind unwind
as only you know how
the world is coming to an end
but that is not your fault

 Andrew don’t give up on me
I won’t give up on you
you don’t have to say a thing
for it to be true

 In your dreams, who am I?
do I wait beyond the screen?
am I a shadow, or an omen?
do I still have strength to speak?
And what do I tell you?
and what do  you do?
I close my window each night
but I know its no use

 7.24.06

 Let me tell you
a thing or two:
we all know that
the sky is blue
but look again:
it’s golden, red
black, white, silver with dew
like love or hate
may twist a face
although the heart
is true

 I found a mermaid
in the river
crying like a child
because half of her
heart was human
and half was wild

I can do anything I want to
I can pack it all up in a box
and tie the box to the back my horse
and point his gentle muzzle to the north
I can roam up there among the pines
even when the snow begins to fall
dazzled by all the mysteries
that neither of us will return to tell

 7.26.06

 Lucas and Red
one, two three
four five six
seven eight
Ina, Andre
what can they say
they can only wait

 the mermaid was a liar
now do you see?
she told things the way she wanted them
just like me

 What was Ina’s first assignment?
I think she had to find a man
and make him tell her a secret
he didn’t know he kept

 Lucas knew
a thing or two
about the other side
and furthermore
the things he knew
were difficult to hide

 don’t you see
they couldn’t be
longer than they are
there are laws about
the way light travels
to the world
from the stars

 if you steal
any of this
I’ll kill you,
and I’ll kill you dead
and nobody would ever  blame me
who could understand

 I just finished
another story
it would be easier
if you would write them for me

 laura my dear
now that you’re here
allow me to voice
my complaint
you’ve never had
a very firm grasp
on what is
and what ain’t

 come and get me,
mr. wasp
we both have poison
in our mouths

 never mind the things they say
never mind the noise
never mind your memories
you never had a choice

 7.27.06

 eleventy-seven
outside of heaven
under the irish moon
I saw a young lady
making her way
through the purple gloom
where are you going
and why do you weep?
I asked, as she wandered by me
caught by surprise,
she lowered her eyes,
oh, ma’am, thank you kindly,
said she
no word have I heard
in this part of the world
from any of its inhabitants
distracted by sorrow
and far from my barrow
I knew not, was I deaf,
or were they speechless?
But now you have spoken
the spell has been broken
that held me here
these three long years
and as morning broke,
her hand laid by her throat
she vanished, in spite of her tears

I’m happy to splash around
in the shallow water
just like any of eve and adam’s
other sons and daughters

 7.28.06

 where are you going,
my dear darling,
and what do you have to fear?
yestereday evening
as twilight was bleeding
into the atmosphere
I heard your name spoken
along the dark road
by voices I never knew
but know them or not
I only did what
a girl does when her heart is true