one from the center of the body

You don't need to write poems,
you have breasts, he said

But I have breasts that write
poems with my whole
body, every part
they won't settle for less

Yes, I have breasts
made of poems and poems
made of words within
words, nothing less

We need more than we make
and make do with far less
than we could ever expect.

And nothing I say, from
the heart of the cave
of my breast really makes
..................any sense,

Oh, Senselessness! I need
you nontheless, I confess,
...................I confess.

Saviors of God

the birds are falling 

out of the sky

       in Paducah

       in Louisiana

       in Sweden

on New Year's Day

thousands of wings

collapse 

like rain

       in Brazil and in 

       the Chesapeake Bay

all the fish

have washed to shore 

       in Kent, England, 

forty thousand Velvet

swimming crabs

throw their shells 

to a sand 

cemetery marked 

with starfish, sponges,

       anemone corpses

I am waiting 

     for the 61C

and I lean against the 

bus stop like my

     mother.

She will keep the world

turning....she will swim,

     and she will fly and

     will hold my 

tired head, here 

on Murray avenue

      until it falls.

      in New Zealand, 

      red snapper, hundreds

      of them, wash to 

shore as three fisherman

watch, mouths agape 

      and  silent. 

 Hoping for nothing,

      fearing 

      nothing--

      Free.

      

modern alchemy

i can do seventeen
different things
with a tomato.

i can write a book
that will teach you
to love him.

i can show you
how to breathe
your whole body.

i can dance
circles around
us.

i can fly
without feathers.

i can grow skin
with
cadavers.

i can sing
like David
Bowie.

i am lasers.
i am electric.
i am glowing
with all that
you gave
me, all
of this
in me
will save us.

first shyku

god is how
old I am

He remembered on the very last day

I don't have time for this,
so I'll say it:
A man
among men is losing his hands,
he is losing his hands and his
sorrow.
His face
stays the same, among men
he sees it blend into every
man's face, the same.
One man
is all men, we learn but
when do we feel it? We feel
it in flashes, in screams, and
in sorrow.
We feel it
in joy, endless joy we forgot
about, we are just one man,
just the
one.

ice speech

i see skyscrapers
inside caves
so anything
can be
contained
i also mean
to say
all is
limitless
i am turning
into
vinegar
influenza aside,
you can't
touch me
and also,
you can
touch me
everywhere
without
hands
i applaud
you, sir
winter
for making
me shiver
just when i
relaxed into
liquid
defenseless
picante, oh
hold me
and warm
me in
ice-dreams,
oh cave-king
i crown you
beside me!

For Nina, of Mirrors

She grew feathers

like she was made of

down, her skin bristling

with dark concentration

"At least I know
what I am made of,"
she told us, proudly
prideless and perfect

without being good.

She spun ribbons
of discipline with her
body as her thoughts

tied knotted corners,
drilling dances into
dim psychic caves
only sex can unravel

She grew feathers,
and still could not fly
so she leapt instead into
a softer seven-story grave