Black crow

Wings an arc

Across my field of vision

And i am reminded

Of Gershwin’s swooping trumpet

And of jazz in outdoor spring cafes

Would that i had

The obsidian black eyes

That rise above the thawing earth

To see life more completely

Than the razor thin slice

Afforded to me in my place

And in my time

Night brightens like pastels

Spreading across black paper

With intent to create light

And something moving

Something that stirs the sleeping

Into a semblance of wakefulness

Becoming a new thing

Eyes open and brain already started

                                        10 minutes ago

While you,  you need coffee to catch up

A marathon runner who missed the gun

But you still have time

To make up the difference

Before the day darkens

And the cycle starts again

Fill yourself to be brim overflowing

With all the light you can find

Every spec that comes near you

Consume like the starved

Stumbling into an oasis

Inhale it until you feel sick

And there is no room for anything else

Because dark waits in the shadows

And it will fill any spare space

You are a doeep sea vessel

Pressurized against the cold black

That would crush you

If given the smallest crack

To slip within

How do you survive eternity

Without her in the space nearby

Unless there’s nothing at all

And you fade to blissful black

While she is the sound of rain

Slowly falling away in the distance

There’s something to be said

For a simple normal sunday

Where you wake up whenever

Sit together over breakfast

And head out to get groceries

To simply be near without intent

There is beauty in a day

Like any other day

I caught a butterfly

As a child roaming the yard

A regal monarch

Orange and black

And brilliant in the sun

And so i kept it in a jar

Like so much treasure

Hidden in my room

Under my bed

Where I tried to care for it

But it faded in its prison

No matter the love i poured

Until one day

I found it dead

And i have tried my best never

To catch a butterfly again

For fear of killing

The beautiful things

Work is where I go

To hide myself

And be something

Other

It is work

W to the erk

Like werk

Not w-or-k

Where i cam be

Disassociated

And lost

Sky is wool grey blanket

It keeps us all from floating away

We the untethered who are wont to drift

If not bound by chains or beauty

Whichever is stronger

Best to stay grounded

For not all are made to wander

i cannot find my way
around the maze that is Tokyo
every sign is in Kanji
and i am lost here
a Canadian Alice
wandering through Shinjuku
and finding wonders
that distract me
from my peril

i memorize the symbol
for my stop at Tokyo Bay Hilton
and ride the rails for fun
wasting time between meetings
by ordering hot cans of coffee
from the mystical vending machines
until night takes the landscape
and is pushed back by neon
and a billion twinkling lights

Watch the gap grow

Between the shores

Of Brazil and Cameroon

Until each is foreign to the other

And they can barely comprehend

That once they were together

Kissing one another

Beneath a tropical sun

Now separated by an ocean

Lovers lost to memory

and out of sight

Solitary through a moon-filled night

Singing sad songs to themselves

In forgotten tongues

Weeping