submitting poems with child-like innocence,
elementary misspellings and unknown passions,
and everyone here says you're brilliant.
they congregate, like Christians praising fiction,
Muslims facing the meteor,
or uninformed Americans voting on smiles ...

although you and I, we know

Like Gilgamesh, we will fail immortality,
but the rocks tied to our feet will surely drown us,
only our words have the slightest chance of seeing
beyond the seed of our seed,

for even eternity is limited for us

I woke up this morning to wonderment and awe.
It was raining and cold outside,
as it should be
I was warm in bed and stayed as long as needed.
Then,
oh yes then,
I made pancakes and bacon with maple syrup
and strong fresh coffee for breakfast.

I pondered my eight lives spent,
and the most beautiful angel guarding the last,
and added more cholesterol

and gave my readers only this

[grins]

there's a complicity of silence
in a poet's hands
sometimes what is withheld
will
rise and fall like phases of the moon

everywhere
the water, and sound strings
beads together into initiations of prayer
but in the desert where poets go to pray
the ritual is under fire;
the sun is demanding:
what is written must be heard

waterfalls are wells here,
they come swiftly in the night
to dream
a thousand lotus dreams

the dreamer
tethered to a camel

alone again.

I saw you behind the sales counter
Joking and laughing with a customer
I said, this must be a nice man

The day I met you at the zebra crossing
You helped some kids to go across
I was convinced you were a simple man

That day you helped an old woman
Displaced from the queue by hooligans
You challenged, your bravery won my heart

When we met at the restaurant, I chose
To sit close to you and you smiled at me
Your honesty and goodness bathed my soul

POISONED WELLS

And so it came to pass
a pestilence rode a desert wind
and poisoned desert wells
all who drank of their waters
would never know thirst again

holy faces pale hidden in black veil
murmured canticles to dying candle flames
for an end to God’s fury....
strikes of blood aross infinite skies

seers and madmen chanted litanies
of ancient curses dark
to end Hell’s delight....
hollow echoes reverberating hollow voices

We are no equals...
Definitely no identical twins...
Why did He use a rib bone?
But not one from the skull....
Did He fear I’d defeat you?
Or wanted me to be your aide
Anyway, it explains....
Why our brains don’t work the same....
And why at times you act strange....
Up there, you’ve got different cells obviously
No wonder your mind’s a complete mystery

Hence, now the best left to do
Is to stop the struggle to understand you

That is the way of the past,
Like the pebble that falls
To the bottom of the well.

Swallowed up in the dark
Chasm of Time's gullet;

In the silent drifting
Into the unknown,
And then abruptly ending
With a satisfied splash.

The day is gone,
The clock has ticked away.
The moon has yawn'd.
The night has tured to day.

my anthropologist friend
from the Big Apple writes:
"Demonstration of the surpassing of human limitations
is a matter of fact. It is not a matter of debate."
"I don't know Thai
and you don't know me."
I write back;
there is no window through these
perceptions that manifests the intelligence
of a universe

Fucked over from the start
brutally narcissistic, cruel
you went for the jugular

Knew where to cause the most pain
gasping, clawing
fighting breath

Inserted the blade
sliced and made the incision
penetrated the muscle

Probed and examined
dissected and bisected,
each part.

You thrust and skewered
wrenched me open
to examine.

Crooked little scar
jagged and worn,
ripped beneath my heart

Brutally mellifluous words
barged inward.

Pulsating eruptions
terrorized my last standing wall
which i allowed to deteriorate.

A cavity was created,
littered with debris.

I did not stand a chance
against the euphonious tune.

That charming voice
became just an echo
between my ears.

The amorous flutters
becoming nothing more
than nagging birds in my stomach

Singing songs
up through my throat
of what could have been.

...