The Soothsayer

There was a soothsayer
who came to a small town
He said to never believe
the things he said

And he warned us all
not to run out of memory

The soothsayer arrived
when it first started to matter
He could laugh
He was always vernal

All his warnings took up
too much space

He stayed
and did not want to love
He preached silence
and could see everything

And we wanted to remember
but there wasn’t the space

Another Clumsy Ode to Spring

When I see you
I am reminded of love
Violet, strange

Winter obsidian melts
Flowers are bees’ chants,
devouring rain

With strange, silken love
chanted by birds
We are always time-traveling

Southerners sing
I am reminded of love
Violet, hoary

This great bloom breaks
melted notions, hidden
among green spirits

Winds from space
move forward to watch
violet blooms
Chants echo, feeding worms
when I see you
and we travel through time

Watching the Apples Grow

Let’s go watch the apples grow
Eat! Feel holy
It’s going to take a very long time

And I am only devout to myself

When did you pick your first sin?
How many can you carry away?
I don’t understand your venoms at all

You have no faith in your own glow

Watching apples grow
in the light that has stretched so long
There is so much that stays, leftover

I don’t want to eat in the shade
And I don’t understand
How can you hate someone
who has experienced true love

Go into the dark and pray alone, for yourself
If we sat together in ancient light
would we grow in front of one another
with all those sins, in all those baskets?

I believe in apples, and light, and dark

Be holy only to yourself, and understand
Eat, as if it were your own heart,
and watch the apples grow

So Bright

A break from the body
and endless loops of treacherous thoughts
keeping the toxins
from leaving the head

A break from work
so few seem to enjoy or benefit from
allowing sugar and spice
to atrophy the soul

A break from love
and the future and money and potential
We’re all gorgeous and strong
and want to be free

A break from the bank
and all the crimes fantasized about
late at night
Mysteries unsolved are leftover hearts, broken

A break from solitude
Such big mouths and teeth and brains
foolishly tie us all together
Floppy, and so bright

A break from time
Memories held so dear and so tight,
they become calcified and then dust
What a comfort nothing ever stays put

A break from hatred
Oil that is dumped into the sea
filled with the dead
No one’s god is better than any other

A break from the soul
An attempt to find peace,
It is possible for everyone to rest
and to remember their own light

In the Winter I Stand so Still

I want to write odes about all of you
But I can’t

It’s still winter
I’ve just passed my own ghost

I want to write an ode to love
but it would be too sincere

In the winter I stand so still
to understand everyone

It’s still winter
I write odes not meant to be warm