Tuesday, November 16, 2010

"The Next Step"

this is
the next step
on this early November day
the cherries shrivel on the zigzag branch
leaves long gone
the zigzag parts the sky
the crows part it too
dew does not crust the grass it’s frost now

and all this is like nothing else
all this is not a metaphor for that
do not link one thing to another simile-wise
like the plastic cars of the children’s train
you are also at some point this morning
in some state
so is the garbage man in Buenos Aires
and the bumpy horned lizard looking at something
in the Painted Desert
all of these things are
as they are
this morning

"Simple"

if you
were simple
you could walk away
after having touched the Buddha’s foot
placed the stone onto the ground
just so
aligning it with the pathway of thought
that straddles your eyes on the one hand
and the horizon on the other

walking away now
you part the air with your palms
doing so produces a squeak a sibilant
objection from the space
it is asking
for more commitment

"Context"



some say
you can only understand by knowing what came before
i love you just by itself hanging there in the whirl
doesn’t really tell us much
so the
markedly veined marbled right hand of David barely touching his upper thigh hanging
really doesn’t tell us
anything
unless we know
what he had just perceived moving
there
over
the horizon