Poem-A-Day #317 : Insomnia

Insomnia

Peace over night - quiet          obvious

But some days the night refuses to rest

It howls - not well - dying cackles

Poem-A-Day #285 : The Alarm is Going

The Alarm is Going

The alarm is going again -

It has been 15 years 8 years 2 years 1 month -
                    it was yesterday -

I stood in front of the Madonna - the one from 1290
Duccio
               - the painting is on peeling wood

Around her head the gold is sculpture - it is an object grown - the tree gave birth to this fully framed woman

The child reaches for her veil -
                    not yet - not yet -

A etches across the surface - it highlights her sadness - is a weight on her
like the oddly proportioned child -

          too small - too adult looking - a doll really

He reaches for her veil -
continues to reach -

You died on this day - or that day -

                                        the alarm is going again - I am not sleeping -

                         I blame the moon for this - it gets fucked by us too often - blamed for all atrocities - I blame it and the light it steals - the fucking rabbit that lives upon its face -

The rabbit hitched a ride on the back of the heron
          its small white paws going raw from the gravity of what they were doing

they landed and the rabbit reached one bloody hand towards the heron's face
and marked it forever -

The alarm has been going for hours -
                    and I feel like I should have burned up by now

Death isn't fear -

          at least not on the surface - I like to think that I understand this but -

The child reaches for the mother's veil -

                    His hand touches the edge of the loose fabric - blue and shimmering -
          his oddly small fingers pull at the edge - her eyes reveal themselves -

The leaves of gold peel steadily -

Madonna & Child (1290-1300)
Duccio

Poem-A-Day #264 : Unrest

Unrest

Wake and the arm is cold again - outside the blankets
like it wants to escape the comfort

The arm wants to tell you something - you were sleeping and it has a message for you

There are marks along the skin - birth and otherwise
notice how uneven the color and the veins are so visible in the darkness

The sound of celery breaking

Knees collapsing on pavement and the glitter of light on everything

The arm wants you to remember fear and agency

The arm wants to sweat with you
there is the sound of a siren - it is the sound of all sirens - the room fills then empties of it

A moment before the most beautiful dream ever forgot - it lingers pinkly in the haze of the brain - calls in sing-song that it should be returned to

This arm has thoughts of going through the window - it cannot understand how one sleeps in troubled times like these - there should be blood on the steps of the capitol

Blood is hard to clean

If it is forced under the covers to warmth - the arm will form itself into a mouth and begin to whisper all the promises that have been broken

If it stays in the cold it will purple - possibly loose itself and never come back

Poem-A-Day #55 : The Memory is Enormous

The Memory is Enormous

.
I sit in the dark of the room
I see the lights from a police car turning
red          then blue          then

The books on the shelves seem hesitant

.
If I say that I loved you - that it really fucks me up to think about it
and that ends a season before it begins -

Will someone please turn off the alarms

In the street there is a car and it has run into something and that something is an echo

.
There is that drive to the airport
An image of all the wrong - spinning in some pocket of time

like a goddamn metaphor for everything and yet - there it is

Life          caught by the grill of an SUV on the highway
murdered like some cow -

I raise the blackjack and I think about what body to place under it

.
The dark is carbon paper

And the trapped object is a dog - wild or otherwise

The body of which - is cartwheeling

.
Here is what happened:

          The dog ran across three lanes of highway
          Barely making it - I almost was the one -
          And I caught my breath as it reached the median and I prayed as if I believed in God that it would stop and sit and be but -

          It made it two more lanes - this dog - running like something was chasing it
          The grill of the SUV
          Silver - breaking the light like water

          And the dog's body was unhinged

          It spun like a top - like some stuck
                    perpetually spinning thing

                    I know because I began to scream and whenever I drive by it - the cars slow down to look - to see what this endless black hole in reality could possibly be

.
And what I'm not talking about is that I was picking you up at the airport

That this is so difficult

That it was some kind of warning - that it was the last time

          I was driving towards you and the lights were flashing
red          then blue          then

And instead of stopping I kept screaming and crying and screaming and I was driving and then I saw you and your eyes and then the moment and the moment in duplicate and then the moment repeating until the end of the universe

.
I was waiting in the dark for the lights to stop so I could go to sleep
So that the books would stop holding their breath