the peril stranger slept in my bed last night whispering strange inane suggestions of coffin like respite
come sleep in my dungeon
he said
take a break from the madness of this world
sleep on the other side of the moon
eat jitterbugs and mothflies
drinking tar wine with soup spindles
till all that is left is the sound of small feet running across the hardwood floor
and the meows of milk thirsty kittens
the mind a gentle wasteland of harmony and noise
eye - by kes
rarely does man remain essentially himself his confidence wavering in the arithmetic morning throwing tantrums of protest hysterical and engaged down the forest path he marches pantry shelves of sugar he believes will create a miracle for him hollow-eyed and careworn abundant in the daylight arms wide apart in his unwrapped shirt tell me what you are saying not one red feather for celebration make it fast and rich with cream only blue curtains draped and he stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up ... if any man have an ear, let him hear that he has seen a whale he clutched his tongue with stainless steel pincers and considered his request entirely improbable and iridescent in a bloodstream of honey and garlic staying longer than he planned water clung to his eyelashes walking forward into light curious to inspect these gifts this time of year yellow leaves were falling everywhere what is the problem understanding first cradles of white stone bleached by sunlight he knows what it is .. what he is looking at he blames no one ... not even himself
i saw the light fly as a bird flowering on tree branches
stepping out into the unknown forest deep inside a cavernous hollow getting sleepy
it fell wayside for a fortnight upon the hillfort where we made love out of dreams
and a salad from the grass
we slept for an month upon a mossy rock
where stories so old and fertile with intrigue kept us roped to a dory that cast its shadow upon the moon's gate
and light reflected down and then we returned nonetheless wiser
a republic in the offering
of strangers and seamen
today i read your poem i read while i typed in my satiate oblivion of narrow escape
i read what i could not see and was devoured by the dance i read your poem as words in shadows and refrain of cloud and light splintering to an end as none know which as this has sung but as yet has entered leaving the playful silence for remote arteries of lending and sharing in the ageless shapes of violins and straw
i read less and less and became intangled by the movement of vowels and transcended in rhyme
altered morning alas frightened by the ashes of endings made calm by dust of time blowing
leaving again again leaving and coming back
as some thing lifting and falling falling and lifting
i read more words after and the words became pictures the consonants became castles the hyphens became sand and gasping was all that was left for breath
there was little to describe the mirror of oneself but the change and broken railings that used to protect the heaven of my reason now lost for some other shore some other horizon not yet invented
i pulled a string from a pocket and twisted its thorny anchor into a hole and wound the fair maiden and tuned it to a spoon and sung the wonder of my emptinees and it is was full of sound
i played a traveller on an old tin boat bumping along a never ending road of waves losing my shoes in the process i kicked my socks into the sea
i sunk my boat because i wanted to see bottom and there i sank and saw trunks of diamonds and rubber men in breathing machines tied ropes to the surface with an anchor to crawl through the starlit burrow of corals in sand and rocks and gardens
spent my breathing for a night's worth dreaming ate the shells and chewed on sea leaves mermaids sang the glorious evening waiting in the shallows with open hands string pearled oysters and clams ascending in the bounty of a surface descending in view a starfish and jelled things spaceless timing the return of a sea otter or hook
i broke my line and floated thus thoughts too amusing to know or believe creation sang in verses and tied knots to balance to break free the coil of disbelieving to suspend murky water with a florid red and green and blue dance fish woke and laid in pool bathing in sun and spent there for a time before waking and returning to bed
myriads and dumplings and fetters unloosened the alabaster the fluorescent and fed grazing in the air furled bubbles a handshake a trumpet a horn a lute and harp played in melody the harmony filled the molten core and burst
and waters evaporated into consecrated soaring cladistic clad wanderers in amusement stood rowing in the perfect morning and seasaw nothing so artful as opening and wincing in sunlight the struck dumb fellow as such a fool who had thought way too much swallowed in the fortnight the belly of a whale
storm fed saliant into the winds without sail finding virtues and giving it bread feeling the emptiness inside his head
washed in a bay drenched sandbar of tokens asking flotsam for the time of day sitting on dockside somewhere always in luminous detail not figured or known and moth eaten pages falling into leaves that floated in a lake
and clay dressed folly to find forever to be that way
