in a dream

In a dream I was free
I made love to you the most beautiful
woman in the entire empire of my desire
I knew how to fly
I founded gardens and made music
rain down on us from the sky
the world was green again
the houses were made of glass
I could see in every direction
at once
I spoke to lizards
and trees
I sang with rivers
eagles and crows
when I looked at humans
I saw bright light
rising out of their shadows
I felt life was finally and always
enough
and when I realized I was living in a dream
I laughed out loud
and I woke myself up
*
(for Terri Clark)

in darkness

by now
i know you do not want to make a living
being beautiful
beauracracy equals lies
opportunity equals oppression
and we never had much time
to begin with
it is january
i incubate my ashes
on schedule
planning for that dark day
when the horror is just beginning
the conflagrations will eventually burn out
even the rivers on fire
will die
but death is not the problem
afterwards
survivors
in the floods
the black air
and the rains that will not nurture
crops
will burn us
the way ahead is already written
known in dreams
fit to our size
the end of our world
ends in darkness beyond
the walls of the poor
i know you don't want to be beautiful
for a living
just something more than a temporary eclipse
a stray gamma ray photon
a dna molecule run amok
or a tourist who has finally run out of luck

everything

everything i learned
i forgot
there was no time to think that way
the alarm was panicking
i called 911
and couldn't hear a word
from the other end
it was the middle of everything
as it always has been
and always will be
that was all i could think about
at the moment
there was fire somewhere inside while
snow fell outside
in a white flash
i felt the whole of my life
fall into
one momentof time
and i knew something
for the first time
that i had forgotten
many times
and i gave it away
i gave to the dogs
whose eyes were full of heartbreaking
loneliness
i gave to the woman who
said goodbye long ago
i gave it to the friend
whose way ahead was forever
zig zagging from path to path
i gave it to the solitude
that gave me my name
which i gave back
the firemen arrived
the alarm was silenced
i knew something
i forgot everything i had learned
and it was good

wreath pt2

we have two minutes
to move the cars
out of sight
to avoid witnesses in disguises
but their clothes were too shabby to fool anyone with money
and the dogs waiting patiently in the parking lot gave them away
the cop was a rookie
in ten seconds he would ask the veteran how to live his life
but this was beyond probability
it was not even possible
it was the only fact in the veteran's life
he was made in starlight on a planet
where blue shadows with mirrors
made illusions come true
what did he know?
he ate breakfast when the night shift was finished
and then again after he woke up in the afternoon
it just worked out that way