The Drift, Together

Astonished that you have turned to go.

She stretches a hand toward the toothy sleeper.

Is it almost honey, is it snow?

Wind, sleet. The branches sway.

Or else, like us, sunk into some long gaze.

Grateful, I know, for just such compensations.

Stars, the last day, endless and centerless,

The bees are buzzing,

The earth beneath his feet, in its dark cape.

Left and right, and far ahead in the dusk.

Jones Sound and Beaufort Sea.

In the sound of the snow. How countless.

Of meanings like these, the world created.

And melt the spirit; his mouth will distend.

Of a far barn, just where the road curves sharply,

The motionless farm couple trudging.

The Calyx

He had been jeweled, just, acrylic, washed.

The botany of dreams, the snow on the mountain

Stirs the air. Pleasant enough, a future with

Fish, let the nose be cold so the lungs

Stay warm, it's what I've learned, it's what

I've done. Who knows, and when we blend

It could be there is morning traffic,

If all plants are monsters and they eat

A final image. The lodestone sings a service,

A triangle's bones, the outermost whorl.

The calyx often remains. She gives her night

When white they beat them, the brothers, each

Told the other, found stars among the grasses.

My cares are beggars. I'm done with society.

2

The wild mare drinks from a river in Cabo:

a pilgrim's dream.

shooting upwards like a cat

I feel so total

petting the roots rocks and moss

paying my loans--

I think there's a creek for her

dim in the damp woods

of a cat's green eyelight

bits of mist shunt

my Chincoteague, your

Cleisthenes, I realize

it's too late for the states

1

watching the wire out my window sag

the silence should be like animal life

elbow knocks the thrush and

the sun is chiming thru my slanted windows

I drive downtown against

These storms. Shallow rooted trees

on the way to Ian's

the sky pole of jet light petals up

covering an interstate

with a green shackle and

the scrounge of coins to buy incense

For Kate G. & Drew G.

here I am thinking of you two,

passing the night without my drug

acting, as they see it, effeminate

you are my sister

but far in advance, do you look

as snowflakes bond to earth

on diadems so woody and inert

when you marry can it be so cold?

what's that cardinal link

when now trespasses then?

to the left, my rigamarole

percolates the blue ridge

like maybe vapor through

January's ductile buds

greening the way towards

what you want, leaning

an arbor growing round

the two in love

unchained

Alabama Slammer

my atmosphere is taking revenge on me

a puff and the sun opens

a puff and a hatch of sun

ruining my day off

the bees are still alive

this stirs

the slow orange

the fear

you can feel it jump to new

meanings all by itself

other than that

I like the weather

it enhances the silence

monday night

I've rooted for the Bills

seen shells on the hills

and a pearl's depth guided

to reveal fault lines,

the chirp bleeds knowledge

to a bird's ear, if it exists,

beyond what is told by birds.

Broad across the path

stretching toward the mind

chapeling the heart

its salty-fingered wind

knows when not

to smoke--