Two Poems
Goodbye Parakeetthe house drawn
ghosts say not of you but
one fell swoop-forgotten alphabet
(barely looked down at all)
not enough time to write waking hours
to save the self or someone loved and, too,
mother some parts through meaning
so wrote the dreams last night incoming
the writing, furious attempt to get it down
be-lasting the going becoming
cadence of a jacked-up corvette
before it slips away
guy in red shirt walking with three girls
“this is what it was like on planet earth”
forgive the shape like the shape of USA
inner connectedness one enters and leaves
enough in terms of waking
between days flash by
(meaning: there is more to life than one can know)
don’t forget the important thing
how the parakeet likens itself to planes
The Stormwailing beyond a delicate hand even sinister shrubs shoulder
one large house leering lit up boys too out to sea other houses
shroud shadows rocks embodied at ocean’s edge so much
modern warfare not present to itself takes place in the mind
as if nowhere tree bent back sky breaking
the wall and a salmon velvet walkway [back] a woman grasps
either side of her face it matters she’s dressed in the sum
of all colors gathering of women a mourning chorus behind her
perhaps the men have been fighting lions in golden cages
now they hack each other up at sea
the storm blows in bringing the smell of iron and as for the death
of seagull dolphin and cod—expect them to observe these too with grief