Let Love Yammer On

Let love yammer on,
let that affection bloom
like a lily
out of the quagmire
of confusion and dread.

Let love tell tales of joy
and find amenable answers
to full bodied life
where laughter isn't forbidden
by the sins of a generation.

Let love cover you in the night
when you are lonely and want warmth
up close to your skin.
The heat of that contact
was once enough
to inspire poetry,
children made of souls,
and undefinable understanding of God.

Investments

Invest wisely in this gnarled world
and the engine of your heart
may find peace.

Invest wisely in the songs
that escape your mouth
and your temporary joy
may find a home with the birds.

Invest wisely in the people you call home
and you may find laughter flowing
and easy words and dancing
like every day is a glittering celebration.

Invest wisely in a lifetime
and you will find ways to terminate
the constant grinding of bone
against bone
against the stones
of granite days
that have always
managed to rain.

Jangling Truth

The rusting vestige of this body
is a gallery of so many bold mistakes.

This classic archway to nowhere
is defined by temporary bridges
and foreign phrases meant to insure
survival and little else--
bread and water for the crossing.

Bring me a coin,
some small talisman I can believe in.
Bring me a pocket full of jangling truth
that doesn't tarnish with time.
Bring a poem wrapped in securely in light
and I will believe
we are worthy
of the blue blossoms
of forgiveness.

Rivalry

This rivalry
is the uninvited guest
whose tongue waggles endlessly,

thrumming the same tired tune
like a stevedore unloading
endless thoughts

just to avoid
another death.

Why Quibble?

Why quibble over the minion of words
in a sea shanty where the pilot of the rising
and the falling of meaning
is lost in the depths so blue?

The oast house that dries the barley and hops for this strong ale
is hot and tempers are sure to flare in these nascent tunes,
roasting before the fire only to be served up to deliberate maidens
and children who will not withstand the bawdy songs
and backroom ballads.

It is lost on all of the innocents
who can't find a voice to speak,

much less sing.

Eventually Everything Blossoms

Eventually everything blossoms.

It is efficient to assure Mother Nature,
the ultimate performer,
that even the hornet can learn
not to sting himself.

Eventually everything breaks free of the petals.

Invisible jarring of joy
can't contain itself
and must gallop across the face
as a smile.

Eventually everything that complains must laugh.

The old woman kvetching at the edge of the monger's counter
catches her last breath and exhales in a sudden gaffaw.
Try as she might, even her hand can't stop the world
from flying free in uncontrollable delight
like bells on the edge of the wind.

Burnishing the Death

This infection,this rush of cells
toward the damage and invasion of the body,
does me no good.

The suspension of faith in healing
from a distance, like a mother calling from home,
impatient for details flush with rosy predictions
will never work.

This maneuver is a reflection of how bad
the disposal of flesh can be,
rotting and septic cannot be made new
by burnishing the death
with words that have no meaning.

I am fading
into spirit
with no attachment
to the death
that lingers
around these weary bones.