fatigue sets the table

i walk between

ankle and toe

stepping over veinous valleys

mountain ales quench

between tongue tips and teeth

to hold you beneath any

great deal of me seems a

definite moment

of betrayal, of bewilderment

begging to be broken by

beginnings

but once you start and head on

i see not one lasting minute of

forgiveness

i only find it difficult to apologize

just before we kiss

i only find it difficult to kiss

when you don't know i am apologizing

hospital blues

one of those mornings i'd

won over the last of her mouth

four hungry eyes

for feeding through late hours

three days passing

there in slow, deliberate silence

eight more thoughts

ate away at my favored conscience and

two stubby fingers

to peruse my beard

too long now for it's own shadow

a hundred lives

brick and mortar.

he picked his weapons

pushed his shoulder blades

as far back as he could push

his shoulder blades

he rested on the mostly fallen

leaves

the mostly fallen leaves rested

on the freshly fallen snow

the freshly fallen snow left

to rest upon the freshly frozen

grass

beneath the grass were footprints

beneath footprints were footprints

one step from fire, one step from

the pull of immense weight,

this earth had been scorched.

this particular particle part of

earth had been left to heal

beneath the heel of this earth

my heart beneath the heel of my heart

miles is a drive

It sometimes was not my place

to speak

up and at 'em.

With closed mouth i scratched my eye

browsing the compact space between us.

Looking for a way in, kneeding away at

our silence.

A cold scratch from my finger

nailed the minor bruise of our "worries."

Our companion

shipped out and between buoys,

that light before you isn't blinding anymore

i've stared and stared and started to stare

in the face of that light.

It dies before i do, but i will still look upon it's

glow as i pass from this world

back to the nothing i was before i was nothing

before,

i was nothing.

underline

"Underline."

she scampered to my hip

"You must understand,

underline."

i wasn't sure she knew that i

was hearing everything she said.

each perfect syllable climbing the

ropes into my canals.

wishful thinking was our wish.

our common denominator upon which

we whistled, and for this i can't hear a single word.

to be or just to be

You don't have to be the first to clap

just a part of the applause.

It's ok to be the last one to smile

so long as you share the joy.

You mustn't be the first to jump

in line.

She spoke to me these words and i

was confident she said three were's.

I took her speech lightly upon my heavy heart.