NIGHT SONGS
			1

After slashing through our jungle
full of savage summer
where animals lie sick
with heat (even the hunters
too overcome to drag 
trophies home)  we'll dream
through scorched nights
of cool vegetable mornings,
corn springing from
the navel of Osiris,
the Nile emptying drop by
drop into a glass of milk

			2

The moon invents new metals,
the house lifts off.  Down below
on the outspread map of night,
rivers branch like blood vessels.
New provinces emerge, borders
blur until a sea of light
washes over the landscape.
Then, phosphorescent dials
guide us back to the landing strip
and all our windows crack open
with the smell of lilacs.

			3

Catch me someone, I've just jumped
from the fiftieth storey.
Wrapped in air's loose skin,
I take a deep breath,
pat my secret pocket
and feel my death as solid
as my father's eighteen carat watch.
Year's rush up to meet me.
Friends call from upper storeys.
I plunge past men with eyes
turned inward, women
self-contained as cactus.
There's just time enough to shout,
"This will be a hard act to follow."




When Light Was Soft And Everywhere

we made a party
for everyone we knew
and those we never knew

drank new wine
ate fruit 
out of season

and sat on the ground
the smell of damp 
rising rich between our knees

and remembered
everything we'd done
or imagined

told stories of a woman
who wore her flesh
like armor

of a child who 
swallowed its reflection
in the mirror

of a man 
whose clothes 
smelled like travel

we talked
to the sound 
of baroque violins

walked into rooms 
our heads 
sprouting ornaments

and later
went back to doing
what we always do




Old Scores

The piano sits in a corner
wrapped in old scores
ivory keys yellowed 
too heavy 
for movers to haul,
too sacred to leave behind.

We push it to the center of the room,
and stop to catch our breath.
Then signaling each other
we swarm over it
pull, pry
heave an axe into its wooden heart

and set tones 
free
split the bone-brittle wood inside,
stripping edges of dust
sharp odor of mice
from its ribs

releasing all the lost cadences:
minor modes
a diminished phrase
broken chords ascending 
and descending on rungs 
of disappearing sound.

Finally, we drag it out,
chunk by chunk
heave it in the back of a truck
dump it
in the parking lot
of the local A & P.

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