ARCHITECTURES DECAY
Thus, age bleeds away youth and turns dentures into lace.
The taut drum of your skin becomes a worn stocking,
untoned, crumpled, and thin. Winter freeze bruises fruit,
your garden becomes waste, and those grim burlap bags
that hang from those pegs were once blimps that flew flags
all were pleased to salute. Monuments get defaced.
sAVAnnA
AblAze WiTh hUnger/disCOVerY
,epiderM AnTs rUn eleCTriC AgAinsT This plAin:
ThrOUgh YOUr CUrlY grAsses These sOfT YellOw liOns
prObe And Under The ripe VUlTUres in The briAr Trees
MY YOUng ChiMps rOMp UpOn gOlden MOUnds --
O The Wind gloWs WiTh dUsT & dArK MYsTerY
And O The MOOn hOWls
AbOVe
Us And YOUr riVer sWAllOWs mY AArdVArK.
MY TURN TO COME
Every foot fits your shoe,
your glove can hold any hand.
You share love everywhere.
I wait for my turn to dance.
ATOLL
Poets before me (how many) have extolled
:melons full melons ripe
:those raspberries (pink&wrinkled) delicate atop your double-dip vanilla sundae
:your slice of peach : your wedge of pie : your pyramid of hot cobbler,
tartsweet juices oozing like fresh tar on the newlylaid I- in August Texas....
but none has ever praised
:the gold and graceful arc of the taut banana – O huntsman's bow before release --
:the strong sweeping scimitar of a Southern Cross bole, bent fullsail,
fruitful coconuts proud unfurled, or :the sweetwhitesticky elixer within.
no one has ever
noted for eternity
the coy Thanksgiving yam.
THE STORIES THAT KEEP ME SAVED
From ocean to bush
to mountain to sea
Beelzebub and Zeus
are chasing after me.
One promises fire,
and one, lightning bolts.
They want my surrender,
they want me to convert
my riches to embers
that will die in the dirt.
I love the burning bush
that walked upon the sea,
Adam’s figs and apples,
Eve’s frankincense and myrrh,
Baptist’s tabernacle,
Delilah’s virgin birth.
Ark of Harold Angels
sinks in the lotus pond
while the lamb and Daniel
wait in the lion’s den.
Grafitti at the feast
that read, “Thigh Kingdom Come.”
Magis from the east,
their whore from Babylon,
the ones who suffered
when the Pharaoh Joseph
devoured the golden calf
during the last supper
ahead of Jonah’s flood.
Peter and his bishops,
when the wine turned to blood,
stole the leaves and fishes.
Allah-lujah Rama Christos Amen Om
