Time Is Cold

I struggle with time,
a man paralyzed
by desires unyielding
to form

No matter how time
is delivered, its entrails
are all I can make out
at night

Time could be snow
delivered in blizzards
and still I’d hold this
empty shovel

Time could be steel
with its bars all around me
and I wide open to night
in its prison

Time could be ice
like a glacier retreating
to the volcano from which
it once dragged me

But time stays unknown
as the world becomes old
and all that I know:
Time is cold.

Sleep as Best You Can

On President's Day, I offer this humble paean to certain recent administrations.


Sleep as Best You Can

Fire’s blazing through your store
No one is coming back no more
But sleep as best you can

Termites chewing up your walls
Soon you’ll have no wall at all
But sleep as best you can

Sleep as best you can
Through the uproar in the nation
Sleep as best you can
Through the whole damned conflagration
We all know that you’re the man
So sleep as best you can

Floodwaters rising through the streets
Yonder muffled drum now beats
But sleep as best you can

Guerilla warfare down below
Stop on by and say hello
Then sleep as best you can

Sleep as best you can
Through the uproar in the nation
Sleep as best you can
Through the whole damned conflagration
We all know that you’re the man
So sleep as best you can

There’s a shadow on each face
Each rebel soldier struck by mace
But sleep as best you can

Dark miasma hangs above
Squalid children cry for love
But sleep as best you can

Sleep as best you can
Through the uproar in the nation
Sleep as best you can
Through the whole damned conflagration
We all know that you’re the man
So sleep as best you can

Winded

I don’t want to look at you
Broken anymore
When you were
Whole you wore the wind
A beggar on your back

You changed direction in your
Chained spasmodic sleep

Now no longer stone
More like a sponge deep the sea
The wind no longer touches you
But puts the waves
Where you would breathe