Affectionate token (if it remains so do we)

The common vow for times like now is this:
that "Never shall I wash the blessed hand
upon which in a trick of fate did land
your e'er-elusive, e'er-remembered kiss"—

But friends we are, and happy in our state,
and precious as this moment is between
the two of us, your lips upon my skin
is not the way today to venerate—

A pigeon shifts above us and we see
that it has kindly solved our quandary.

Steely Inspiration

"I need to focus now on Kierkegaard,"
in vain I say 'fore Poetry's narrowed eyes.
"Oh no," she says, "Although you ill regard
submission to my ruthless enterprise,

The path from kitchen table to your bed
will open only once I've had my way.
You must release what I've put in your head.
Until you do, your sleep I'll hold at bay."

And so I sit and think and feel and write
and hope someday she'll let me say goodnight.

Momentary Life

Prancing to stretch my legs
Outside of a Burger King
I too quickly remove myself
And enter the warm bright

And even in the reflective
Afterglow of my joyous
Exploration of my muscles
In the parking lot waystation

I forget to return to the bus
In similar exultation

Returning

Just so you know it'll
probably take me some
time to unsteep
from where I just was

to have the dye of there
fade from my thoughts
like the freckles from
my skin in the winter

Until then I'll
probably be blinking a lot
and speaking in hesitant
tones as if I can't quite
focus on you or verify your
existence to myself

or really the existence of
anything outside of the
book I've been reading so
intently

the book
whose last page
I turned before finding
my seat on the plane whose cover
I thought I'd shut whose words
won't stay put

defiantly uncoiling
from the perfect loops
into which I'd coiled them

like an unruly set of tefillin

reblogged--"Unrequited Love Letters"

"What does one do with the detritus of unrequited love?"

Unrequited Love Letters

thanks but I'll stay cracked a little longer

I am sorry I can't go
out with you tonight for God
heals the broken-hearted and

binds up their
wounds and I'm not
ready to get a clean bill

of health God's signature
on a prescription order in my
hand as God exits through the

curtain separating me from God's
other patients and leaves me alone

to change back into my street clothes

how about you try me again in a couple weeks

8.30.2013-10.14.2013

Henna II

Swirls and flowers mark my movement
from one life to another

Pungent black the first day
soon a brick-brown stain
is all that is left of

a change a moment a
feeling I try to hold on to
as tan streaks fade

into the barest blush
that threads along my
skin cracks until it is

indistinguishable
and who I am now
is all I can remember

July 7 2013

The softness of the carpet feathered between my toes and I reached arms up until my shoulder blades opened. Why these shorts? This shirt this bracelet? May the window open and my Muse come through may the window open and the one to whom I am Muse come through

Psak

I remember Musa
prefers not to play
for mixed dancing

but we are behind the curtain
and already started and
we aren't really what he's
talking about

right? In any case this
is not a regular makom
dancing so we don't need

a mechitza and if you want
I will rule that it is fine
as long as we make sure

that four amot remain between
us 66% of the time and in any case
people are watching
and I want to

After Rev. Dr. Stephanie Paulsell's "Devotion in the Study of Religion"

"Devotion in the Study of Religion:
Address for the Convocation of Harvard Divinity School
at the Opening of the 198th Year"

My face is made of angles
and your teeth gleam in your face
and my skin shines like moonbeams
and your lashes are of nightsbreath
and my hair curls around your fingers
and your hair curls around your hat
and your hand closes upon my shoulder
and my eyes close upon your shoulder
and your smile is behind my eyelids
and I drool in my sleep I and do not know
what you do in yours