Sit With Me

you are the best you
I have ever met
the reason I get up-
sleep inertia grew my frown
missed the eclipse today
felt it, nonetheless
it's possible I'll never get around
to what I meant
ironing discrepancies
until my landscape is horizon
see the spires and steeples matter
open the door and see the fingers
gathered
we matter
there is no greater religion
than sit with me
when I can't find the words
it's possible I'll never get around
to what I really mean
I still feel you are near
when alone cushions
when darkness shines
there is no greater need
than sit with me.

Two Weddings

Two weddings this week
neither is mine
would I know how to feel?
beloved, just there
flowers haloing
the only souls who've known us
haloing
would I know how to stand
how to smile like day break


two weddings this week
neither is ours
she asks-
do butterflies have people in their bellies?
They must
where else do all the timid folk fit?




no one will know who I was when I let go
if asked whether and where have I lived
I will answer, affirmative-
fields of purple-gold iridescence
an echo of her hand in mine
waving white flags from garrisons
smiling and marching like heartache
glad to have had the space to say


here is my right now
& all I have to offer
I can't say what it will become
once it is yours,
but here is my right now
& all I have to offer.

Our Wedding Day

On the day I marry you,
I will wake up as I have the days before
as I will the days after
I will want to polish myself clean
so you might see me as the pebbled offering
I am
I will look back at myself in photographs
marvel at the strange formalities
try to recall what I was feeling and remember
in the span of a day,
not much will change.
When you don't know I'm looking,
I will watch the way your lips ride words
When I don't know I'm listening,
I will sigh the syllables which combine our names
I won't need to make a toast or vow,
you already know all the things I cannot say
The most precious things in my life
are only between you and I
The day after our wedding,
I will wake up exactly the same
but I will have done
the impossible
the invisible
the indelible
But then, we already have.

Soon, the mind goes

these crisp green leaves will curl
synapses more tangles than avenues
as the many layers close in to survive
the infantry will kneel; yellowed, red
never to be what they aren't.
temporary, as
starbursts born so gentle in their morning
reaching for the borrowed sky
only to sacrifice each breath
for the branch below
some say you are nothing but rungs for rings
never appreciated until counted
taxed and compared
I say you are the bender that doesn't break
the wind's rush and coo;
the symphony in the forest
guides your pace
the courage in the fall
reminding you to move
while you can.

some time during the night

it's still a little blurry, but I remember
some time, during the night
while the full moon waned warmth
our hands reached for each other
I do not know whose hand moved first
even in the midnight,
when our minds are lost
in fairy tales and ghost stories
our fingers
on instinct
know home

you said you dreamed of seeing me from a distance

that I appeared happy

it was your way of saying you were letting me go

it was my way of hearing you had given up

you can't blame everything on a dream 

To the Stray I Named August

you appeared one day
lurking near the abandoned house
a ghost of better times
when someone had extra scraps
or patience enough to tame you
still, there you are, as loyal as loss
if you ever saunter near
I'd like the story of your mangled ear
to hear your sneer-
should've seen the other guy
some days I think you're waiting
for someone to buy the place
fix it up, welcome you
the front door king
most days I see you watching
waiting for all of us
to move away.

सूर्योदय

on the day he was born
I recognized him

from his previous self 

I was not enough
life had desperately 
multiplied
    crawled into my lap
         bounced on my shoulders
               born to shed from me:
into the arms of the universe.
life pulled, dug, ripped
for my growth
pointed me in all directions

we are transposed
I am the wide-eyed newborn,
startle response high,
rooting reflex rigid
he is the old man sage
one question tapping the pulse
another question
holding starlight together
just long enough
to ask for this dance