Rhythm is a meter just beneath her and the seconds I’m given to smile
Wrap the morning in sunlight, guile
Our life is a scent on the wind
Of falling leaves and fireplaces, where warmth begins
Our eyes echo of the past to come
Our love , girded papilion

Irritant is
Bent intention like a moon
Undisciplined
I am just Breath
And Consequence
Of spun water
A Dance ‘til Death

The moon mentions “You have rules for me”,
laughing constantly
The crown, feathered tomes, a candlelit
Fisher King
Her waltz wanders eyes; War headdress,
Rosemary spice
elect
her neck espousing
Grouse, minerals streaming
My sister posts ambulance ride selfies
WIth a loosened insistence on eternity
Hamearis Lucina, or ‘Duchess of Burgundy’

Alcohol dries my heart to the bone
Calcium score of lunar dust
No rhythm, words like stone
Set on the mantle; the earth’s crust
Bones build constellations
Their names run beneath
Archangels grant damnation
My lungs beat without relief

What dreams here untested by
Ganymede, circling; apprised
Judas, freckled skin;  the cries
Reconstructing childhood
From the tides
Ferris wheel
The skeleton of a pier
I am 13, 27; I am forty four
Alive

The Jesuit and
A party as clean as the afterlife
And no people
Just new music
Ritalin rain, tulip petals
Imagine they discover imagination on
The far side of words
All faces become familiar
Tenants of our Temple

The sunlight, a departed friend
The lamp light;
Autumn’s condemned

Ariel ruins, the left foot to lead the dance
Spiral, laughter; the endless
Chance
Water crests, the deck boards ache
And the jawlines clinch
Death will have to wait