Alphabet City

tiny polynoses
sink in the sky
spin little jenny
atop the not seen
seek joy in loss

Chagall 2020

I watched my neighbor's dog one summer,
we quickly bonded over treats and runs,
and she'd lie on the porch in the sun all day,
while I played solo jazz on guitar
to serenade her

I know in September she missed me deeply,
or so I'd like to think

I wouldn't blame her
if maybe she missed more the Cole Porter

Chagall 2020

• Sadistic yetis yet to come
• The Ethereal Theatre
• Promise me more posies
• Elephants shan’t leap
• Second-hand chandelier relics
• Candelabra brassiere clasp
• An inch of nipple pinch

• The illegitimate subterfuge of starlight
• Mediterranean terroir
• Pages of grapes
• Cast-iron iconoclasts
• Spherical laughing cones
• Celebrate tribal barnacles
• Iron-on illustrations of ions
• One final fling long ago

Chagall 2020

This is the summer of the indigo butterfly,
so purple-blue almost black, 
her wings trimmed in subtle buttery-yellow piping,
in flight she is less erratic than others 
yet the path is more uncertain, 
unpredictable in her acquiescence to the whim of the wind

Chagall 2020

 

Inside out, stout ideas
and robust blustering,
through this well-lit box,
extraordinary measures

here's to your mind where these words now flow,
once removed from mine

no more oceanic
for the tongue wants to name all
and so we sink rather than swim

forgive me
there was no way 
for you to know...except for words

let's make beautiful language together,
forego the words

Chagall 2020

Angels atop 
the pin's head

No one
dancing

Chagall 2020

All nearby palindromes, now hear this:
Turn yourselves around immediately!

Chagall 2020

I cried today
over something most trite

simply
life is short
and all of the things that you have stored up to someday do
will not compress into that final day

all of the calls you'll want to make 
will not go through

hearts are easier to hold
face to face
here and now

Chagall 2020

You are different when you are Laura, Penny.

Chagall 2020