think of the word glorious

and remember the moment it swelled

in your lungs, bubbled

up to your mouth, steeping there

waiting to be let: the sun,

yet unrisen, defining each jag

in the ridges: smeary clouds

consuming all promise of light

like warmth, pink to orange: brilliant

curve of your mother around

whom you shall blindingly spin.

 

 

 

 
  is the woman, in search
of her husband, who steps from
the elevator into the morgue,

wrong floor, the chill and the
smell of it, the fright, O
(not here, not now) the un-

shakable breach of ignorance
(Seize me, I am culpable)
when one receives a vision.

A few days later, under
the fluorescent light of the ICU,
he sleeps, he slips without

motion from this world—
(the glow of his supple skin
the glow of wherever he’s been)

 

 

  

 
  And Sue, benevolent soul, the nurse whom
you did not trust, do not care for
still

because in one of your delusions,
she pistol-whipped you
senseless,

Sue, from across the distance
of her work station,
held

my shaking hands down, my hands between
the warmth of hers and the
chill

of the counter beneath
the air-conditioning duct—this is
weeks

before I burned myself, understand,
weeks before I felt, traversing the parking lot,
the pain

of the sun on my seared hand—she,
with a look that took in the skin of my throat, rash
raised

from a spell of precipitate mourning and you,
just beyond in mortal struggle,
said,

Don’t go there yet; it is not time
yet.

 

 

  

 
  Incline your ear and hear some thousand cliffs
And myriad ravines.  Our soul among
Lions and even among the beasts our mouths,
Bloodguilty, on fire.  We flail in the wind-
swept grasses and shape the joyful sound of
Pomegranate, penstemon, monk’s hood.  The
Deep of your garment doth swallow me up. 

Slowly we grow a green olive tree, a dwell-
ing place.  No.  You are a blooming bluebell
Of seclusion, lovely, reading in a
Fishing skiff.  So the beast makes its way home
By way of the willow embankment.

So art thou waterflood.
So am I fed.

 

 

  

 
 

to admit the undertow
quickening
into the darkness
waters flow
into a longing
(swaying waves
sea kelp)
muscled curve of the fish
shell of its prey

*

tribal prayer
gypsy god
solace
I’ve sought
protection
I’ve sought
disorder
I’ve sought
my autumn
my moon
my salt
my self
an abiding surge
a paling hieroglyph

*

yellow
into green
into love
obsessive love
companionate love
A language in which the verb precedes
altruistic love
pragmatic love
yellow, green
love beautiful
love erotic
filterless
green
love