January

There should be a law against
January
Clouds roll in for tombstone sky
Frozen birds and people
Southward fly
Or die
Waiting for a crack of hope
But “Nope” says the dealer
House rules
House crumbling
Evicted from the house
House condemned
House to be rebuilt
By June

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January – Microsoft Word

Sleep

You think you can shut this down
Grand Central at midnight
Trains inbound and out
Generator in overdrive—
How do you sleep?

You entreat with a pill
Count sheep on the wall
Here in the caffeinated city
Your graffiti on every car of
Every train, every sign

Pointing to a night at the theater:
Rumbles in the station, panhandlers
Rap music, lost chances
Lost potential romances colliding within
And tell me how will you fall

Asleep?

Onward

Hard to believe you hover here
In this numbing cold
You in the smoke, you in the trees,
The snow-filled fields,
The birds that bear this blinding freeze

I like you so much better
In the summer where you
Blue the sky, you warm the lake,
You let the girls wear summer skirts
You let me have what I can take

What will you be in springtime?
Will you take Afghanistan away?
Ann-Marie whom you know well
Knows nothing of this metal world
This crushing hole, this freezing hell

All those butterflies, I close my eyes
I see them painted in her room
You in their wings, you in their eggs
You gave them flight,
You give us legs

Alight

When the night descended
Madman beggar, loveless soul
I was hanging out my laundry
To dry in the sun
Never one for timeliness
I tore the clocks down
From the sky
Where am I
Come morning