We were entwined in red rings Of blood and loneliness before The first snows fell Before muddy rivers seeded clouds Above a virgin forest, and

FOR DAVID P—B The eye follows, the land Slips upward, creases down, forms The gentle buttocks of a young Giant. In the nestle,

When love is a shimmering curtain Before a door of chance That leads to a world in question Wherein the macabrous dance Of bones that rattle in silence

Funky blues Keen toed shoes High water pants Saddy night dance Red soda water

Pretty women wonder where my secre… I’m not cute or built to suit a fa… But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say,

I keep on dying again. Veins collapse, opening like the Small fists of sleeping Children. Memory of old tombs,

My man is Black Golden Amber Cha… Warm mouths of Brandy Fine Cautious sunlight on a patterned r… Coughing laughter, rocked on a whi… Graceful turns on woolen stilts S…

I keep on drying again. Veins collapse, opening like the Small fists of sleeping Children. Memory of old tombs,

Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone

I’ve got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry

Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleev… to peer into my eyes while I within deny their threats and answer them with lies. Mushlike memories perform

A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since depart… Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried token… Of their sojourn here

Tears The crystal rags Viscous tatters Of a worn-through soul Moans