slow moving clouds golden linings frilly peach
white edges glide through blue sky
i dance like a zephyr
in treetops i listen
frosted wintry stars
ancient calls to yonder
window breaks she reaches
my hand slips she falls
falling backwards
in midair
float
gently
down
to
the ground
Chagall 2015
Hey, don’t look at me
if you don’t know how
to use the ingredient
My taste tests
are pretty fine
Chagall 2015
A shooting star
twilit celestial filaments
across my lashes no longer than half-an-inch
yet up there the fantail of light
is twice many billion miles
nearer than your lips and heart
to mine.
We caress at time’s edge
under corona, or maybe it’s umbra
but who’s to say?
Steady pulse
of shade to light
shadow to crown and
you to rain.
We are leaves invert
we are tips of roots
we are that from which all is derived
we are constellations.
We have begat
the universe
that which is
out there
is small.
Chagall 2015
Wielding the pen is the poem
is it not?
That we are at all
more ponderous
than why.
Tell me again what I’ll tell you,
I never grow tired of hearing.
You arrive before that which precedes me,
such is my life, these latent neurons.
And love?
Rain, alchemy, inevitable parting,
the last touch of fingertips in a crowd.
The sweet and sour and salt of you –
such a heady bouquet.
Chagall 2015
A part of memory,
a nuance I couldn’t describe
that connected that specific aroma
with a certain feeling up-down my arms and legs
throughout my gut a tingle of being alive and timeless
– I felt it again today.
How strange to be outside
looking in.
Chagall 2015
She exclaimed
Such a beautiful church
it’s non-dimensional
I asked
You mean non-denominational,
don’t you?
She retorted
No, come look
She swung open the large wooden door. I walked in.
Oh, I see what you mean.
oh!
o
h
!
m
y
G
o
d
!
.
.
.
Chagall 2015
In my dream my father removes his tie
and hands it to me saying
Merry Christmas C
I take it from him folding it gently
in half, the silk rough to the touch
I ask him
Is there a heaven, Dad?
He smiles, we embrace,
his cheek smoother than I’d imagined
and before he can answer, he’s gone
Chagall 2015
How adeptly we use
our opposing thumb
to screw-up all
that surrounds us
Chagall 2015
I am moving off the grid
no longer found
at the intersection
of any lat or long -itude
confined within no cell
prescribed
there’s the writing
on the wall
you’ll see it once
you reassemble it
though it reads more
like graffiti
so sweetie I’m going
far
far
away
Chagall 2015
Alphabet City 