I Want

I want to hear it
Taste it
Your … bliss
And I know the way
To tickle it out
Tease it out
Oh, how
I want it
You look at me
And I sense it
Boiling inside
Of you, yet you
Are controlling it
I want to make
You lose it
To cry it
To call it out
In an insistent
Rush of
Delight
Bring it here to me
It is in your secret breath
The one at the bottom
Of your lungs
The one you save
For me

Big Strong Arms

I'm so tired of trying
To carry this world
All on my own
I just need a minute
Oh god please
Just one safe place
To set it down
These strong arms
These big shoulders
Look like they could
Hold up my world

Ode to Joel

I know what heartache is

It is pain that begins with loss

Something or someone

Is suddenly absent

Emptiness rushes in to

Take their place

It is like a burning hunger

But deep in your chest

This pain is connected

But also its own thing

Every nerve tells me I have

Found someone I lost

From a time only barely

Remembered, like a dream

And I know I could not

Survive this loss again

Thousands of tiny events

Flutter around like autumn leaves

Your unremitting words

Describing the world or merely

Mumbling in sleep, the dialogue

Apparent though the words are not

And your sudden bursts into song -

Perfectly, miraculously in tune

I have sat for hours, listening

Drinking you in, trying hard

To capture each delicious second

As you sang to me

In the living room, or on stage

Then you sang Undone

And I remembered the pain

That is coming for me

Every song after that
Reminded me you are leaving

And taking the beautiful music

Of your words and your singing

Away from me, back to the island
I used to be content alone but

When you left for just a few hours

The house was painfully quiet

Pain and love are the theme

Even at night, after five years alone

I find myself fifteen years old again
My girlhood magically renewed

I do remember my old lovers

But they are sepia images now
Your brilliance has faded them

Into indistinct shadows

You are a force of nature

And you frighten me a little

Gentle and sweet beyond words

Growling and biting the next moment

Saying unspeakable things

Some crude and rough
Others nakedly romantic
Doing all of it for me, for us

I understand who you are

Having known you so long
Yet, you were a sketch

Now the lines are filled in

The colors fleshed out

And it will hurt me to my core

To take my eyes off this

Beautiful painting

Bird Jesus

This crazy, multi-colored bird

Has been hanging around

The island lately

Folks call him Bird Jesus

He walks on the water

Maybe that’s not quite as cool

As it is for the regular Jesus

Since he has webbed feet

People throw him bread

But who can tell

How many loaves

Or fish for that matter

There are in the waves

Soggy bits floating around

And yeah, he attacked

Some bankers the other day

But maybe he was just looking for

A shiny coin or two

To decorate his nest

I guess I’m pretty agnostic

On the whole idea

Don’t tell old Blind Jim

I said any of this though

Bird Jesus flew in and

Dropped two big marbles

- Cat’s eyes, both of them

One blue, one green –

Right in Blind Jim’s lap

He’s been wearing them

Stuck them right in his

Old dead sockets

He swears he can see now

I don’t know about that

He’s stopped begging

And walking into traffic

Jim said with wonder that his

Toothless old wife

Had become a beautiful girl

Now that I think about it

Maybe there is something to

Bird Jesus

Pillow

There are soft clouds all around us

We float high above the earth

Singing to each other in the ether

Your hands restless in my hair

Our voices intertwined

This is heaven

It is not so very far from

The one promised

From pulpits and old books

You reach up and pluck

A song from the air

And hand it to me, smiling

I gather it up with a cloud

Into a ball firm enough

To hold together and I ride it

Fiercely as you watch

Until I am giddy and damp

And I float back down

To brush a gentle kiss on your lips

A poem slips unbidden from my own

In the ecstasy of the moment

Before We Meet

You told me once

Not to ruin the magic

When somebody loves

Something of yours

Let them love it

Don’t tell them

What’s wrong with it

How you made it

Or how it used to be

Better than it is now

I’m not blind

I know what I see

I’m not afraid

I know what I have

I’m not afraid

I expect you to

Find the magic

Just like me

This Stone

This stone sits in hardscrabble

You're not gonna pull it free

Without scraping the skin

Clean off your knuckles

It won't just give up

You will have to pay

With a little of your own pain

It gleams with the softness

Of girlish promises

Unconditional love

And whispered pleasures

But don't forget to keep

An eye on those knuckles