Stardom

In here is this star I am holding
And it's as heavy as worry.
But I remember there was something
I was supposed to do with it long ago.

This star is burning right through
The substance of my house's walls
And going blind is all I can do
Because I forgot to give it to God.

The Beverage You Are About To Enjoy

No matter where
We go our shoulders go with us.
And burdens there
Can be read in any language, any eyes
Stare at the ground.
Hair hangs down. Laden sighs.

One hand reach up,
Holding a heavy coffee mug:
Glaze-smooth cup.
If light curls around the turn of its lip,
Maybe you will kiss the sun
With a sip.

Hopscotch on high
(Numbers of stars, squares of roots)
In the sky.
If you lose you fall and die
And oh, what a glorious way
To say
Goodbye.

It matters not
When our shoulders follow us
To that certain spot.
It is where we learned to breathe;
And this is where we cry
And drink cold sunlight in our tea.

Wing

The fair ones have been watching
And they seem to have noticed
Water, or some such thing,
Overflowing our eyes.
And that it is very touching,
They don't realize.

They cannot understand
Very much about our world.
All the rules still stand,
But they don't fathom why;
And now a break is planned
Because at least they have to try.

Saturation level sound
Twists like ribbons to our bones
Till we have to spin around
Just to keep our feet
From scouring out the ground
To the flight and to the beat.

Upward, upward falling;
Music like a mother's voice
So ingrained in us, its calling,
There truly is no other choice.
And there is no use in stalling.
Now it is time to take wing.

Ghost Gem Green

Shake me to wake me when we get there.

I can find rest just about anywhere

And stay half conscious for hours that seem like whole nights.

My arms are tingling like a grave blew by close,

And pins and needles dance madly on my toes.

I wonder how many years since I've sat unbuckled.

Beethoven's sonatas. Is the radio dead?

Rocks in my stomach and air in my head.

I'll twirl through a dream until the fifth symphony plays.

There is no black darker than black night sky.

Green ghost gems float on the glass by my eye.

Upside down out the window the stars never waver.

I'm so comfortable now in my discomfort.

I don't want to move; I'll stay in my good shirt.

Don't want the road to end, but go on always, all ways.

I can hear you breathing. Your lungs are speaking.

Your soul is so peaceful your silence is leaking.

It's so still I think sound is impossible in real life.

The wheels make a plush sound, a hush sound.

They scrape and I blink and I feel them all rush 'round.

I thought I was flying, was sure I felt my arms rise

To a height of a foot or so above the seat.

My head's over the moonbow and so are my feet

Dancing on a star road. My concentration further frays.

I'm a train but I'm freightless

And I'm heavy and weightless

Until we stop and home startles me awake with a jolt.

Tastes Like Color

Sailing down the avenue

With boats strapped to our feet

Skate around the bend

Where the road doesn't end,

Where two other crosspaths meet.

When I kiss your eyelids

They taste like the brown they hide

And when I kiss your cheeks they taste

Of all the clumsy and thoughtless haste

Of the words that you let slide.

It doesn't bother me much

That you might have lost your touch

And lost your mind as well.

It's because I'm under your spell.

But I'm also in your clutch.

I licked blue raspberry Popsicle

Until it wasn't cold.

Red-like-tomatoes lipstick

Made you look like an idiot.

Made retro not look old.

The broken things we call our past

They're just calendars on the floor.

The new one's on the door.

And if we mess up that one too,

We can always reach for more.

Jude and Mary

Do you know the lyrics

To the song that's driving by?

I thought I caught a glimpse of them

In the recognition in your eye.

I don't need lyrics, sister.

They're just words and words make lies.

I caught a glimpse of something truer

Looking past the leather skies.

I think I heard the chorus;

It goes la-dee-da-dee-doo.

Stereo system was worthless...

But at least the car was blue.

I guess to you the music

Is static like a wasteland.

But how I see it: honey flowing,

Roses blooming, heartbeats hastened.

Sorry, I was dreaming.

What was it you just said?

Whatever we were talking about

Just went clean out of my head.

It wasn't that important.

I just wanted you to know

The way I see things different now

That I've found the right place to go.

Life's Roadblocks

This was the moment for him;

He reached the wall that blocked his path

And climbed it and looked ahead and back.

He added up the memories

And they amounted to something

He found somewhat surprising.

And he found it so comforting

Like a remembered lullaby,

Yet unfamiliar and brand new.

It took the space of a silence

(It could be a single shocked blink)

And a theme became apparent.

That day he learned there comes a time

When you know what you're doing,

Because you can finally see what you've done.

I Can At Least Continue

Dylan walked on stars each night

And he wrote their names on his face.

Fire was his solid ground

And tears his outer space.

"Where are you hiding?" I called.

He answered with his longest laugh.

"I'm waiting for you in the cave

Where the stones are broken in half."

Footprints lead from the city.

Is it my Dylan I follow?

There's a place where the sun shoots through

Where water and wind formed a hollow.

Dylan told fables and truths

To honeybees, rainbows and birds

And they saw his eyes and hair,

If not the intent of his words.

Dylan has left the city;

He's left the hot glass for gray sand.

So I'll run till I catch up

And can catch hold of his hand.

Dylan never danced before.

The planet was never too hot;

But his soles can't stand this lamplight

When we pretend we are what we're not.

"What are you singing?" I asked.

"I am singing of braver days.

They happen in my head

When I drift into a daze.

"Sometimes I can catch a glimpse

In a handshake, a wink, a scream.

It's my dearest high ideal,

My heart's continuing theme."

Dylan walked on stars each night,

But now he has landed on Earth.

Their sparks would sting and kiss him;

On his eyes engrave their mirth.

Dylan walks the earth for now

And smokes his dreams in bed.

Magic falls behind him

And music streams ahead.

Personification

Ice crystals conform to the air -

Snowflakes, hugging the cool curves

Of the wind (with her arms and her hair

Tugging at trees and her toes and fingers

Receding into the cool grass down there.)

Gray today, or blue, or some gold?

By morning the sky will choose what to wear.

Now the moon throws off the clouds,

Slips out and leaves the bedclothes behind.

Glides across lakes, her feet trailing words.

Toes write on the water a story, unsigned.

A bird made of glass and courage and faith,

The swan and his kind didn't mind.

Tent of Dust

Jewels rubbed raw,

The shavings that drift away on breezes,

Not a glimmer left,

No energy to raise our heads or open eyes

As spirit flies and invention frees us.

Metal beams ripped

In half like snapped and stripped green sticks

Claw at milky windows;

Concrete floors submerged in puddles of detritus.

This is where we practice our tricks.

It is breaking.

Rubble dribbles down its sides, leaving trails

Of dirty breaths.

Feathers flicker in and out of light patches

And dust coats the ground where one ghost still wails.

Forstalled

Reserve a place for me.

I have something I need to do,

But I'll be back in no time--

At least it will seem that way to you.

This is an unsung song.

Whispered tears went into its making.

The scream in my heart is caged,

But my smile's support beams are shaking.

I held my hand to the light

And its shadow fell hard on the wall.

My feelings only cast shadows

In my eyes when I'm hiding from all.

So I walk into the waters

Of the coldest lake I could find

And the bottom drags at my feet

Like the thoughts that I'm leaving behind.

I bend to touch the surface,

Cupping my hand like a leaf.

I scoop the sharp water and drink it,

And the action creates such relief.

The water has no color,

But all colors dance through it like friends.

And the black-and-white rainbows inside me

Are the meaning that God intends.

Shortly now I'll return

To the life I can barely survive,

I'll come back from the lake in no time--

Just allow me this one last deep dive.