MY HEART IS AN OLD MAJORDOMO

My heart is a drum majorette
Toy soldier with a broken arm
Falling into the sewer
What all could happen?
Riding the paper boat
Hope out to the estuary
Will we find the spring of youth
In the unassuming fountain
On the corner of St. Third
Or condense and fade
Like taxicab breath?
In whose sprawled out body
Did I make my home
Down whose blood am I
Rushing. The city is
A heart in the middle
Of which there’s a garden.
Meet me there
Like the very first time
Before the Apple store
Made us feel naked
Let’s find the grail
In an old sports trophy on
A dying villain’s shelf
When I awake
From the coma
I want you to be there
Laughing in pajamas
I’ll be the
One with the bouquet
From the underworld
And the toy heart
Sipping on a rain soda
Reading the rain newspaper

MY BODY IS HAUNTING MY SOUL

The clear thread of light
Across that tree
Is talking to me
And my soul
Overgrown and metastasized
From little pruning
Or control
Rises to the front of my skin
Like a swimmer
To the rippling
Surface
Smells the tree
Sings to it
Ever since I was little
I let my soul have free reign
Inside me
Whoever tried to
Order it eventually goes away
Do you know
What it’s like?
To have a wild garden
Inside you
Unassailably to
Watch it grow whole
Spires of thorn
To the sun
And meadows
Far as the eye can see
I watched my soul
Resurrect grandfather
Show me the stars
Even you
Fell in love with her
It couldn’t have been me
And how I wish
Her mission ended there,
How I wish she’d stop
Before she wears me out
An old
Eastern European suit
Left in the dusty
Department store window
Faded from all the years of
Talking to the sun
Do you have any idea
The size of my soul
Baby

SUPERSTAR

(for Diane)

People
Have many names
For a
Woman who fails
To see the features of god
In a single face
But what if I were to say
The thing I chased
Never stayed in just one body
What if I told you
I was following a spirit

Tumbling in the fog
See you appear
And are you here to stay
This time
Or move on, shadow
On your silver lining
With that collar up
Against the wind
Blowing from your eyes
Knocking me down
By the time I got up
You were gone

I know the
Crime is in trying but
Saw you’re playing in heaven
So I’m going
Across islands
Of time
To sit at that bar with a star
An actual star.
Hear your words divine
Lie to everyone later
They’re mine