(Your Name Here)

I always write your name
in parentheses.
I want to protect you.
What you are is naked to the world,
it is ashamed of you,
you put it to shame.

Miss E

You stuttered words,
a sing-song muttering,
and even then you never
said my name;
"I love..." and that was all,
nattering, strapped to a lawn chair
in the sun.
I knelt before you, hand on your knee,
tea roses on your lap.

Summits

Every real thing

is a question, “Will you?”

a summit where we overlook the world.

And suddenly we understand

what courage is required for life .

Everything within, without us

cries incessantly

how resolute is truth,

how towering and resplendent;

take a breath.

Everywhere we go,

we go from arms to arms-

lingering like the sun

with a last look, a sigh

on shoulders.

This world, my soul,

my God,

heaven is my heart made large enough

to love You the way You deserve.

Cover Crop

Small bones,

multitudes of sins -

yours, mine, together.

Boiled down for broth,

choking in our throats.

Shovel over all,

cover in this heavy earth

the carcass,

bleached by sun,

buried deep now,

better left

to insects underground.

Forgiven. Not forgotten, 

but remembered only like the refuse in the soil -

collected, composted, recycled for
our better loves to grow.

Only for our better loves to grow.

Eating Violets

Butterfly in the sky,
I'm five years old
spinning in the kitchen
with a glass of milk.

I'm eating violets, Violet,
it's spring, I'm trembling,
does this always mean - ?

Rain and new channels,
unrain and otherworldly aches,
glittering,
budding green,
gasping at the tiny births
of fingertips.

Whose heart is this that that that
stole mine
one day in the garden,
one feverish night?

I gave, I give on giving
everything,
more than I have,
more than my body,
things thoughts
soul
which you made, and only
can condense, romance,
or enter by.

Winter Song

There are some songs I can only sing in the winter;

the sun is closer than ever, but I feel cold.

All I tried to gather, to tie, 

is scattered all around, is wet in the snow;

and my feet - I tried to make them strong -

but all it takes is a shard of glass to cut through the sole and 

to the bone and

it's never been harder to let go.

Winter stretches so far out before me;
months and half-inches of hair.

Where is safety? I heard it is His -

somehow a dispensation of innocence

your eyes are dark, your heart is warm;

take me inside.

I will be pulled limb from limb,

I will let you melt me and mold me again,

let your heart bleed into mine.

But why all this blood, why all this blood, why?

Blood is death, blood is death,

Why all this blood, why all this blood, why?
Blood is death, blood is death,

Blood is life.

Will it hurt when you open our eyes?
Kick in me, baby, I know you're inside! 
Open our eyes. 

Communion

Don't let your love be wasted on me.
Amour fou, amour propre,
Hush.
Feel me bristling under this quiet hand?
Someday, today, I will accept it;
This peace of your skin,
This cup of your blood.