Travelers

More than two roads have diverged here

You having been to me what I have been to you

Travelers of life, equally bound to this duty

I have been the red light, making you stop

I have been the amber making you think

And I certainly have been your green, encouraging you to grow

I have been the family of ducks gingerly crossing in front of your car, bare in blindsight making you pause and realize delicate life’s defenselessness

Have I not been the twisted wreck craning your neck in backglance; the one that made you instantly swear off behaviours? yes yes yes An instant call to change? Yes!

And I have picked up my pieces alone

And rode on, changed.

I have

I have been the gentle iced over curve that made you aware of gravity

I have been the traffic jam stubbornly keeping you still challenging your ability to stay in the skin

To be

To not move

And you once passed me on the left, flicking me off, thinking nothing of it.

I have driven down your dirt roads; gotten out of the car in torrential rain and played in your mud

I have run into the woods, leaving myself on the side of you

escaping your enclosure

Have I not been all of these things?

I have seen you sometimes, in my rear view mirror, smiling at me my smile.

I have driven nights where eyes went through the open roof navigating more by stars than by yellow striped black pavement

Have I not carried my own stones? Paved my own path? Have I not found you when you went off of the grid and refused to be discovered? Are you not my New America?

I have taken to traveling, to moving forward. I believe in this terra firma bottom frame of this firmament eternal and in you always being there, perhaps showing me the way.

And the earth is round

so we shall meet again.

I have seen him pass me on the other side, my other side, smiling my smile. I saw you knowing my thoughts. These same roads which tear us apart can bring it back.

And yet, I may never see any of you again. For these roads are unknown; unbekannt. But we have all been lucky here. To travel and traverse each other the way stars wink cross the empyrean and never touch

We may never touch but I am touched

You have been my road sign sometimes telling me to STOP, YIELD, EXIT, DETOUR, SLOW DOWN. I have been your mirrored image doing my duty. You were born knowing what you want here

And this has made all the difference.

Effulgent Sun white as snow blinding me, I still speed into fate

Sure of one motion following the next

Driving past the horizon

Into the oblivion of beauty.

A Warmed Life

In the Golden Glittering light

of the Garnet Apple larger than life

Angels herald my Crystal Cold steps

Towards an Everemerald Tree as tall as Wishing Stars;

A tree which seems to befriend its Christmas Choir of High Rises

All singing in the Blue Noise of an icy breeze

AMOR VINCIT OMNIA!

Auroral Incantation Blazing Brass Skybound, Crashing Copper and

Sparkling Silver into the Polished Metropolitan night

Made magic with a Spectrum of Strewn lit Sequins

A Rainbow captured prismatically

Under which I dream.

I dream of the most delicate states

Like ice sculptures

Gracefully dancing on April Air

their Ephemeral Decembral promises

melting into memory.

A Warmed Life

Blanketed with families sharing once in a lifetime wonder

or everyday wanderers taking it for granted

or love finding itself at last on bended knee

Photoflash becomes ornament

and another Perfect NYC Christmas

unfolds before my everopen and unjaded JadeBrown Eyes.

ONE

WE ARE ONE

DENY YOU MAY

BUT TRY TO MOVE

YOUR TORSO

WITHOUT MOVING MINE

SMILE WITHOUT

ME SMILING

WRITHE WITHOUT

ME WRITHING

GO WITHOUT ME

DYING

WE ARE SURELY ONE

Found

Thought I lost an earring today

A diamond earring

So little I cared

Still having you.

Listening

Bird above me

what say you?

who do you call?

You are so clearly alone

on your post

singing to the bay

And I sit beneath you

listening

knowing it's not me you call

But I will listen

if only to keep you company

and let not one soul's call

echo into the ethers alone.

Secretly, Yours...

Wrap me and unwrap me- I am your present. And in your future I am your gift. And in your past, I was always there, shining and soft, lingering; flirting; fringing and dying to be untied with gentle excited pressure.

Feel the silk velvet touch of what you don't know- the reason there is a bow- to prolong your pleasure of the unknown.

Promise to always tie and untie me, find then unfind me, hello then goodbye me- if only to come back to this moment of suspense; this delicate surprise.

And I promise to giveth and taketh away; to love and leave; to go but stay- forever in your wish list; your delicious bliss- find you in dreams both daylight and starlight and wind and unwind you; wrap and unwrap you; bind you to me with the pressure of a gentle bow,

and make you guess what is beneath.

Almost Full Moon

Night Crash on a Cancer and an Almost Full Moon on the precipice; a Jordan Almond Crescent away from perfectly round beam beholding all- you torture me.

I need you. I look like I'm running from something tonight, rather than just running. I want to keep going tonight and not stop, rolling, incessant tryst tangled in my veins, those hot things that pulsate with your tide shift.

I need you now. I feel myself on the edge of myself- a scant curve away from losing all control. You are one lunar parenthesis safe from my total sovereignty- white hot light swallows your darkness tonight.

You are almost powerless; surrendered- A Lion in a SeaStorm- what now of those fangs?

I need you now to run.

Diamond Heart

I have a diamond heart in my chest. On its best days, it radiates rainbow light; touches everyone within its limits; shines all over the world- especially your world.

On its worst days, its cold like a million icicles converging; hard and obstinate; and beats for no one- not even for you.

Having a diamond heart is difficult. It cannot break even when it wants to. It feels heavy in me and rattles against its cage- wanting to break free. But oh! what precious jewel; what pristine artistry; what a sparkling farce I suffer alone.

When you love me you feel my dazzling worth,

and when I love you I do it with a heart of stone.

Same Sky

It’s nights like these that I recall; that bring me back to the way the stars swirl above your dizzy head when you’re thrust to your knees. Tears blurring the cosmos; your soul watching through your waterstreaked windows, barely recognizing the body in which it dwells for now.

I just simply fell that night. Dropped my heavy heavy load. Watched as my art portfolio, my car keys, my bag, my books and my grocery bag just fell, rolled slightly away on the sloping sandy grass of a Long Island manmade hill.

I was empty- nothing left but these tears and my primal scream to the night sky.

The moon was hollow, I knew. No one was there to hear me so I wept more for myself. Like a gong, I resonated against that hollow moon and those tears cleansed my sorrow somehow, as they always do.

It’s funny how our horizon is almost never the same- we go through so many changes. So many men. So many friends. So many loves. So many cities and professions and apartments and houses. So many reflections looking back. But if you ever doubt that you are you, still you…

Look up.

Every Woman Knows...

Every woman knows, when looking back through photos, which smiles came from the light within. Like a chemistry experiment, we glow somehow when added to certain people- our kindred travelers of the golden brick road- who make us genuinely curl upwards smiling from every cell and spark. Those are the ticket stub, ribbon, phone number on a scrap of paper, lucky penny, empty perfume bottle, class ring, button from a beloved shirt, mix tape, pressed flower, saved savored moments in which we are, truly, beautiful.

So Far

I travelled this long highway alone

So far So far

Seem to always be looking for home

So far So far

I've peered into your doorway

Saw your pie cooling on the sill

Wanted to be invited in for a slice

But the road she calls, her sigh sweet like solitude

So far So far

And she winds and unwinds for me

Stretched out over miles over shores

And I alone must travel her

So far

So far away is the orchard where we made our love into flesh

And you were mine for a summer

And for a summer I slept soft beneath you

And then you were gone in a flash

So far So far

And I'm done with this town, or any

Sick of the stop lights that give me pause to think

Tired of the few, Fired from the many

So these tires find freedom on the open highway

And I've managed to not even think of you

So far...