Time Gets So Big

What’s left 
are my mother’s linens 
and every damn coffee cup 
chipped and cracked 

What’s gone - the summer leaves 
stunning 
when examined up close
in the strips of sunlight
that dart through the trees 

Why so sad? Don’t reminisce….. 
it will remind you of us 
of this – that time just grows 
so big like that 

It’s an ache in my toe 
(from a bunion that grew out of the side of my foot)
cracks in the walkway 
my child’s college tuition 
haunting to be paid 
unopened boxes of candles 
forever waiting for laughter
to be paired with glasses clinking…..
 
We braced ourselves 
for those tremendous waves 
at Jones beach 
we just dove into their bellies before they hit
we caved into each other 
in preparation for all the deaths

so big - the list 
of thank you cards I meant to send 
another wedding 
another baby born 
somewhere 
in this endless family 

 
-- We Don’t Stop --

Who can wrap their pretty head around it 
shrouds me with busy-ness – am I busy enough?
can’t I just watch - for a moment
as the hummingbirds delicately
buzz the feeder? 
stare at their sweetness
before death stares into me

Feel my heart
rapid now
slower soon
slowly
time just gets so big like that
so fast

 
Devil’s Playground

I got lost 
in the aisles of your woe 
shopped all your poisons 
passed row after row 
of angels 
with harps on warped rocking chairs 
 
Thought time was a falling leaf 
yet I’m still here 
bones and soul 
body a violin case 
holding the shroud of Jesus 
 
I’m old like the music 
that echoes through the store 
my head is concrete 
lead pellets in my socks 
dragging corpses 
through centuries of wardrobes 
stage after stage 
drug after drug 
journeys that left us 
with permanent memory loss 
a gimp 
and missing teeth 
like who’d a thought…
a walk in the park 
an ancient game of handball
long drag of a cigarette
O-shaped smoke
eyes so freakishly blue they glowed 
 
Who’d a thought
we would create kryptonite
and it would blow up into a long-winded
sci-fi flick with us
as the creepy creatures left sifting through 
the scraps
 

When God Made Man

He put that extra succulent rib
in man’s body
only later to rip it from him - that perfect baby back
and rewire it with a few upgrades

We knew back then to hold tight
grip our orgasms
work fingers to bone
a kids mouth
forever sucking

We knew back then
we were fused
with mooncut bone
some extra-terrestrial beam
perhaps to wreak havoc on man
who couldn’t bare the thought
of any one of us fugitives 
being the backbone
of their succession