Slowcooker

The best thoughts
are the ones that form
along the edges after years
of de and re composition dark
and savory their histories
no longer discernible

Comfort

is two lovers
knowing they look
out their windows
at the same moon

is two estranged
persons knowing
they pray toward
the same God

Winter wondering

Each placement
of foot on icy
path a hesitant
calculation

Gloved hands at
the ready tongue
between teeth eyes
downcast thoughts

of Maybe I'd have
tread upon you
a bit more
gently

would've been more
ginger with what
I was doing
to you had I

realized it's not
only when I'm
afraid of slipping

that I need to look

Can't see

My skin glows like the lake at nightfall
My hips are round and
smooth as riverstones my
hair is like gazelles like
waterfalls my elbows
like swans' curved necks

My hands have turned to
furled blooms my lips
to moonbeams and what
have you done with my
eyelashes so dark and
velvety I can't see
anything but your
affection

Strip the animals the
plants the nature
from me let me be
human to you
Put away your pen

It is not necessary
not here
not now


(after reading the first two chapters of
Shir haShirim, the Song of Songs)

Keep me aware

Keep me aware of your presence
Make me talk to you as if I took
Benadryl and should not be allowed
to fall asleep Keep me awake with your
Praises keep my hands busy on the
timbrel tie Bells to my feet so I will
move and Remember you do not lose
me to my own Music Do Not Lose Me
to my Dreams Keep me here
put the words on my lips

Hanukkah Night 6

A nostrilbreath sigh
flicks the flames a-
dance they are seven
hummingbird wings

Closeness

As we stand on the porch
saying goodbye I look up

and see the slender cylinders
of the wind chimes moving

in the breeze never quite
enough to sing with

each other and I ask
how is it that you can be

so fine with this how
can you keep from reaching

Hanukkah Night 5

I promise
that I'm not
using the light
of the Menorah

for your face
would be just
as beautiful

to me your
eyes just as
lovely if the
candles weren't

gleaming on them

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.