i wept in a dream: nocturne

for e m...

don't ask you to
heal me--don't want
to scar you nor
claim too much nor
ask for other than what i
really would like--just

want to
do you.

no lies and
no offers i
could make
without keeping

nothing about
the obviousness
of your beauty...



opportunity, feeling
like a red horizon
grander even
than the flush
to the forehead

opportunity what's between us
maybe

would call it
something better
but no good
with words.

milton: nocturne

for e m...

i feel something different.
as if i were quivering
on the cusp
of a new world.

don't want to say much, though--
it's hard to say anything with any freshness anyway.
i mean, for example,
your eyes are like
flowers
your mouth like
a flower
your hair
flower-like
your face
fair as a flower.
because flowers
are the most beautiful things in the world,
i guess,

or at any rate they will withstand
comparison
to you
if only barely.

quietus: nocturne

for e m

want to be
the bitch at your feet.

want for some amount of time
to be some one single thing,
univalent,
uniplicitous,

your
spaniel
this may not
be
normal

meditations of the beast: nocturne

for e.m.


exhaustion sets in like
a hot wind
weaving through
the petals of
a rose head

a sweet exhaustion, not
the metaphysics
of what

but
the delicate threading
of a hot wind a
languid definition
just
after

i thought of you
and reached inside

new monster: nocturne

your mouth on  mine   like
a world   i  wanted
to hang inside   the fire
of it

and then when
it was   over
did you see   the  blind
white   seeking  on
my face?   as  if you'd
flipped  a rock
and  something
half-formed
couched
in  dirt
looked   back

disoriented and  only
half-  planned
as
breathless
wondering
icarus...


when i was alone
longing
stained me
stained me like
fresh red   stains
a   horizon

the  light  fall
of  a
feather

presage
to  the   plummet
limbs  tangling

the air   in the  mouth
tasting  of  a speeding   world
plunging
into    velvet  oblivion

raucous freshness: nocturne

i feel
the heat  tangling   stretching   strangling
in your presence   as if from   out
the mouth
the   rose

burst

red
dark  

smooth 


nothing  left for
tonight   but  bask
in   remembrance

girl-lady

lover  i want


broken as a line of teeth
broken from the jaw and throat
but its impetus whole
as the seed
as the clinging vine
as the sweet root
ripped half by half
from the vocal fold
but the push of the sound
as made
as a whole
world

dearest: nocturne

for e m

after many days adrift on the shifting ocean of my mind,
sun and moon beating careless down on my bare head,
i washed, salt-parched, to shore, and for a minute
gave over to thanks for that at least, before
opening lids on what i'd landed on:

a white beach in the shadow of a cliff
and v'd into its stone a grotto
where fresh water seemed to trickle
for there were green things all come up inside,
the ground green-packed, and lichenous walls
breathing sweet and wet.  stumbling i crossed
from white to green, finding the space
larger than what i'd thought--a small world
resting in the crook of the stone.
i went further in, treading softly on moss
spangled with tiny star-white flowers, ferns
brushing my upper thighs, vines my shoulderblades,
and saw a pool there, reflecting sky, at which i knelt
to taste.

it was fresh and clear, saltless, rock-sweet.
my thirst had been bitter--i felt
every cell expand, grow sleek with water--i drank
and drank, almost laughing, wet along
every line of parched gums, every crevice of teeth,
against tongue and within throat and all through me.

afterward, crouching back, i looked up
and found the goddess of the place:
a statue, made from white marble, yes, but streaked
every lovely color--gray and blue, and at its base
the gray-green barklike lichens bloomed.
its lines slender and pure, the figure of a woman.

i do not know how to give her thanks, so
for days i have been just staring at her, just being near.
but the stars at night are giant and clear, here;
wrapped in their shadows, with my back to the cliff,
and the echoing waves sounding far far away,
i am capable
of rest.