Howl Loud

Remember,

when you speak aloud,
words become stones spat out

and never again may you take them back in-

so Howl, and Howl loud.

Scar not your tongue anymore.
I've watched you bite back so many
whirling words for fear, but now

learn quick because the tide is rising,
and it won't stop when the rain does.

speak your truth and Howl loud!

Say your goodbyes to the children
and friends you'd given your life to
hide and protect, for the world is cruel-
as you learned too young, and sweet

innocence lost to black thorned sheets,
pillows made of bones sucked dry of marrow

you must Howl!

Speak only truth, and screech it loud.

clock

I wish to pluck all the numbers from every clock's face
and build from them a great puzzle, or map

close my eyes and draw the lines in
great spiraling pictures,

I will drink deep all the wisdom poured over me.

let the heat rise in steam,
setting stars against the sky to sleep quietly,
explosively though

Try to remember to breathe.

velvet

I want a stinging velvet voice,
an opium stare. all the intensity
I feel to be released in every exhale,

to be a muse of legends
repeated thousands of years.

I will not rest until it all comes to me,

maybe in a hypnotic state

no concern but the proceeding roads,

maps I will travel forth and back.
America to my right, window to the world
and sky on the other side

We will make something of this life,

though it seems to suck some dry.

we will wrap our hands around it,
squeeze for the juice to be savored
on our tongues as we grow, old from young.

pursuing the finest of natural things

what it means to be true and loved

to, for, and by another

living solely on hope

this all will be more than enough.

we tied her down
and fed her the insides
of animals sacrificed,
kept and carved the bones
into indian faces

it's hard to trap, entrance
something so eternally
liquid and flowing
she moves as if underwater,
deliberately out of control

weaving pretty distractions,
sparked our simple minds-
she escaped between the lines.

time

Why does time not seem to ever drip or fall steady?
I lose and gain hours like sleep, of waking sleep
incessant insect energy, how it all buzzes within me
Are these the things I've not yet grown to know?
If I couldn't believe in this I'd believe in nothing more.

night

so much of what i see and feel and hear and know is abstract,
intangibilities i try to put a face to the name with the tip of my pen
funny, it all turns out same in the end.
this heat gets to me,
there's no break until dusk, and then
it's only shade for the night.

rotting

there will be many beggars and thieves you'll meet
know them by the slit in their tongue
and the smell of the street rotting