I looked down

At lopsided shoelaces

Wondered which I’d trip

Over first and there you were

Sheer cliff caressing the tips of my toes

I climbed down the ledge

Clung to and hung from the curling lip

Wild-eyed watching into you

I hang you there next to me

And tell you look but you don’t

See what I do // your eyes are

Filled with the chasm

Stage for bare feet, swinging

Until I realize you don’t know

How far you descend into me

Nothing is intended

To be enjoyed in its entirety

“What do you despise in me?”

You ask, anticipating,

Not the answer // I give

You sunburst, the first bite

Of a cherry tomato that doesn’t fit

All at once in my mouth //

I loose with equal pleasure

And perplexity:

“your absence”

Watch the contradiction resolve

Where my conviction flickers in the eyes

You take from me, chasm

We are watching

I bought a window

A thin sheet of

Squarely perfect glass

The man came this morning

He was surprised

Because I told him

To put it in the back yard

On a stick

Like a head

I stood in front of it

Holding a rock

In my left hand

Even though

My right arm is my throwing arm

I looked through that window

Squeezing that jagged little pebble

Until

Imagination became insufficient

And I let go

Of the rock

I was testing the water, watching

And reveling in the shatter

And the splash of glass shards

I found that I missed the rock

The cool and the can’t of it

So I walked across the grass

Knelt in the glitter

And began

To collect the pieces

And force them

One by one into

The painful corners of my skin

My uncomfortable zones

I am sitting at the kitchen table

With a cup of hot tea and honey

I am not drinking

Instead

I am looking into the still-sparkling

Space where my window

Used to be and thinking

Maybe

I could call the man

Who brought the window

To see if he can

Fix it

we are called Equal but when

the politically correct

confetti settles, when we

shake it from our hair

and our elbow creases,

only one of us is

at the reception,

WhatIs

looks up at

WhatCouldHaveBeen

and they both pretend

that they learned

how to dance

for reasons other

than this one

occasion

The pebbles on the windowsill

lingered in longing

like the fingers that felt

for them. The gray/red-and-

purple hues cast back sun-

drops into tired amber eyes.

He walked the paths

pebble-littered and, lovely,

looked but the next foot

ahead. Every precious curve

he coveted. Every smooth

touch soothed, a fleeting

balm to the unquiet need.

When he gave in, grasped

but tenderly their

gentle gravity, they weighed

some fragile distance inside

him. Then another would

catch his stony glance and as

he stretched out a hand, he

only thought not to

drop the ones he had.

I'm hot, loose tea and the world

Is ice melting into me so I

Write lines and rhyme words

Then crush them with

The razor recommended

By my lover's wrists

There was

a blanket

folded

yellow, soft

in a row

of blankets

folded.

I have a lot

of blankets

in my closet

that I

have used

before

to keep

warm,

but

they stay

folded.

They are

not

yellow, soft

flung

open.

At the dinner table trading jokes

Dad went first, pun after punch line

We'd try to stay calm but always broke

Into bursts of reluctant lettuce laughter

  What do you call a grizzly with no teeth?

  A gummy bear

      Hahaha

  Why did the banana go to the doctor?

  He wasn’t peeling well

      Hahaha

      What’s brown and sticky?

      A stick!

      Hahaha

Firefighters, police officers, and public servants

Came to my elementary school to teach us

Safety protocols. I turned left

To greet a passing cop and walked

Into a cement support beam.

It’s funny now.

   Why was six afraid of seven?

   Because seven eight nine

      Hahaha

      I want to write poetry

   Hahaha

   I had a dream I was awake

   But when I woke up,

   I was asleep

      Hahaha

It was a silly dream

      I’m going to cure cancer

   Hahaha

   What do you call an alligator in a vest?

   An investigator

      Hahaha

   Where do you drown a hipster?

   In the mainstream

      Ha

      What time is it?

   Time to get a watch

   Hahaha

I leave my dishes in the sink

On top of the other dishes.

When I leave the room,

He asks why –

      I’m tired

   Hi, Tired

   I'm Dad

She always wondered things

Like why morning kept coming

For her and why the divine dollmaker

Measured flesh so imperfectly

I like to think she has answers

Now I like to think they are still

Relevant

lie to the looking glass

- he lies back -

mirror his court and distort

approach to esteem locomotion,

shrug struggling shoulders, and climb

into careless affectation