Youth Goodbye Howdy Doody
little puppet poor man’s Pinocchio
goodbye Lana Turner lipstick cashmere sweaters
paper dolls waists cinched to the nines
hello chin hairs straight and proud holding themselves
erect waving to those around you
§
Travel Volkswagen Blue Bug four on the floor
you will carry your heart in your suitcase
but your tag will always
bear your name
wherever you may go you will always be you
§
Ambition California Poppies bloom not
to be possessed
but to spite drought and fire
you are your own bloom
the pattern is yours
you can go beyond your limit
what is Heaven for?
§
Health Eggshell fragile broken
surface made for cracking like the sky
my small soft self
still alive
still buzzing
§
Sex You flinch from the sight of seeing yourself
in full light of his eyes trying too hard
to make yourself beautiful
tonight the god on this porch
is a wounded sunset
the music has already died but it has become you
§
Love Moonburn I wear my hat
to avoid night’s blister
life begins all over
when a boundary is crossed
when fugues intersect
when you taste yourself
and it is sweet and ripe
§
Memory Geese winging south searching
for the shaman’s wise eye
even feathers have no name you
feel too heavy
for the spaces you inhabit
