Involuntary

When the wind blows your hair
Against my cheeks
The smell of you invades
My senses, strikes deep
Down to primal corners of my brain
Beyond the limits of the sane.
Then
My synapses firing
Out of control
Drive my lips down
To find their ground
Without sin
In your skin.

Animalese

On some days I'm a cat
I prowl alone
And if you smell
Right
I'll rub your limbs
And purr for you
But if you show unseemly
Delight
I'll leave
Walk my own path
Away from yours
Through the night
And warm your toes
If you're still
Nice
The morning after
And meow for you.

On some days I'm a dog
Big, shaggy, happy
With a big wet tongue
That longs to drown you
In love
You could rub me for days
And I'd stay
And tremble at your
Touch
I'd roll for you
Gambol for you
Run and fetch too
I'd be your happy slave
Your delightful knave
I'd warm you like a stove
Smother you with love
And bark and bite for you.

On some days I'm your bird
Chirping happily away
On a perch
In a cage
My performing stage
As you live out
Your life
Ignoring me
For days
Feeding me
By the way
Behind your bars I stay
Yearning in song
Yearning to belong
As I chirp for you
And tweet for you
I pine slowly away.

On other days
When I can
I will also be
Your man.

Your new friend

I met him yesterday
Your new friend
We didn't have much to say
He looks content

I laughed with all the rest
Telling jokes to quench each sigh
And I passed the acid test
Through the night my eyes stayed dry

But across the room
I watched you for a while
And I noticed in the gloom
He never made you smile

Yes, I watched you for quite a while
And not once did he make you smile.

Dead City Blues

The children play
As the city grows
In the gutter
And the garbage
The children playing
Among the crows

That baby in the corner
Sucking on bottlecaps
He smiles happily at me
Scratching at his scabs

Everywhere I turn
The children play
On roofs, on ceilings
Where the paint is peeling
While the city churns
The children play

If the whole city burnt
In the ashes you would see
At every corner of every street
Where the burning bodies lay
The ghosts continue to play.

Poet

I bleed words
Upon eager sheets
I pour my soul
Upon parchment
I turn my hungry heart
To ink

I sink
Words with teeth
Into untouched leaves
And smear them with my grief

Old Friends

The words flew fast
And laughter too
As the wind ran ripples
Through our hair
Two old friends met suddenly
After a long and silent while
The intervening years
Evaporating
With a smile

How familiar seems magic
And how rare
When it's no longer there
Moments in time
Twinkling like the stars
Against the canopy of the past.

On such nights
Before mundane tomorrows
The starlight illuminates
The relentless sky of sorrows
And papers over seas of sighs
With twinkles in our eyes.

Lost

I'm just a drop in the ocean
I'm just a shadow on the ground
I'm just a small, shimmering grain
Where the endless desert dunes abound

I'm a rustle in the distance
I'm just the breeze upon the plain
I'm the glimmer on the waters
I'm that tear in the pouring rain

And I am so lost, love
I'm so lost in your love

But I'm just a flash in your eyes
I'm just a ripple in your pond
I'm the wistful note in your sighs
The glint of sun upon the fronds

I'm the whispering in your silence
I'm that world of yours that came undone
I'm the past that you've forgotten
I'm just a ray in your setting sun.

The Fool's Song

I have squandered splendidly
All the life in my years
Scattered to the summer winds
All the inconsistent tears
Filled up every moment lived
With the forbidden and the damned
Filled my world with laughter
The others did not understand

I have danced with fiery abandon
To the beat of my own inner drums
Sung songs of love to those who hate
Mooned and lampooned the small and great

I have poured my tears upon the earth
When the world rollicked in senseless mirth
I have nursed the ones whose hope has died
Have boldly spoken truth to those that lied

It's been a foolish life, they say
But they have lived not even a day
Known neither laughter nor tears
And lived only for their wages of fear

My fool song sings with the hopes of the earth
With the horrors of death and the pangs of birth
A contrapuntal harmony of joy and of pain
Thrown to the wind with an ounce of disdain

Come then, and sing with me if you dare
Sing strong and free and clear into the air
Sing of fearlessness and laughter
Sing without a care for the morning after.