I open the window at times
to hear more than feel outside
The sound of distance machines
in over my sill
Headfirst out
now and then
Rekindling softer times
cupping flames to ward the wind
Deeper breaths than that –
now simply hold it
Again…
Chagall 2017
I burn many an overnight candle
For those who have come before
Bright lights in as many corners
Once dark in my mind
Chagall 2017
Wondering, two little ones or just one big one?
Chagall 2017
Eating tiny spoonfuls
of miniature chocolate morsels,
slowly,deliberately,chased
by sparkling cold-water
to cleanse the palette
to prepare for a spoonful more
of morsels.
Chagall 2017
A lion on a balustrade
balanced against all odds
slip sliding away
On a pedestal shorter than the tall stack
paddy-whack, in search for dog bones
here in the litter
What you make it is how it’s made
the stuff of space and in-between
Your smile there in the gaps diffracted
along the lines of so many prisms
charms more than shards
Reflecting what’s overhead:
to fall is to float
An archangel at triumphant arcs
arching, finding the longest path
to home
You’ll stay and
blue skies will go away
Chagall 2017
Tiny flying being on my porch screen
flutters against my palm for just a wing or two
before obliging to explore the red plastic cup I use to embrace her briefly
before release to the wild, for a while I follow her joyous jag,
then she’s gone turned into gray sky.
Chagall 2017
A fair-weather nemesis
never a fare-thee-well
Caught up
in circumstance
Softer than down
then I’m up again
Once on a ledge
twice fallen
Maybe you’ve seen
where we land
Point me or paint me
please keep me with you
Namesakes should
never go
And so …
Lay us down gentler
than air
Chagall 2017
Today is the 60th anniversary of Laika’s trip into space – the first earthling ever (as far as we know). I wrote this last year for her. I hope you enjoy it. —CC
In 1957
Soviets sent a dog
named Laika into space
aboard Sputnik 2 –
the first earthling
in orbit ever
She did not
survive the trip
I imagine she barked
in space all alone
jumping at comets
she saw out her window
tail and tongue wagging
until finally subsiding
to a sad whimper dying
closer to heaven than
any had ever attained
Chagall 2016
I am here as witness to attest
to the unequivocal breaking of dawn
Chagall 2017
Razor sharp
my face like a baby’s ass
freshly shaven
neat my collar’s
open she licks
a long neck
to minty lips
sweats like tonic
in a mouth of ice
she breathes in steam
like a new age coming
lustful urbana
does floor routines
atop a medieval mattress
hold sway there my Dulcinea!
I am flattered by your ardor
evidenced by subtle protrusions
of your body’s softer and finer tissue
you Bonnie and Juliet you
© Carlos Chagall, 2013
Alphabet City 