like a heart dressed in black sequins

(seattle, jan. 2011)

here there are flowers in winter : here not even the trees bend up in cold : the grass is stoic when sleeping : & thus when a seed falls from a flower it doesn't matter the season : when a seed falls from a flower there is no reason for it to think itself part of that original flower : if it feels obligated to call home to petal 2 on sundays and petal 6 on tuesdays it is because it was asked to do so : when i walked out onto this glass floor i suddenly wished it gone : if just to see what would happen :

(seattle, jan. 2011)

on the way home i became slightly confused : i was leaving a more suitable home than my own : it was washed in warmth & the tension kept taught by a fantasized intimation of a shared world : in the past i've left portions of my life behind, assuming to know all possibilities of particular people : as though this understanding drowned forever an attraction : a more frightening knowledge of commitment : more intimidating than being locked in a room with 20 fat ladies with tubas pining for yr affections without break :

(seattle, jan. 2011)

i'm not at all frightened by this proximity : this closeness to an oppressive yellow & 4 tight-knit walls : & here, another person kept touching-distance away : if i close my eyes her breathing becomes miles : like a thumbprint on the lens of binoculars :

(seattle, jan. 2011)

this is what alone looks like : it's brothers are hearty and well fed : eating chili out of cans, they pick the stray beans from their beards & toss them into the thin air to catch them in their tired mouths : they laugh weak at all of this, & let the whisky drip slow from the corners of their lips : they live here whether you need them or not :

(seattle, jan. 2011)

still like a department store window display : my jealousy is a dandy : oscar wilde taking communion in an episcopal church on sunday : if i could take my nightly walks through queen anne, down to the docks, as anyone... : it would be as a father : pushing a baby stroller through the streets at 3am. : the mothers asleep in their houses would stutter & gasp in their dreams : bringing a baby out in this weather? : & at this hour? : baby & i take pleasure in our boldness : we are pleased by the warmth of our own hearts :