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Forgive me for becoming
unfamiliar again. The creek
hidden below entrenched
with rippling sounds
moving drew me down
the mudded trail
slip sloped and nettled
with stumps wrapped green
to the place I must be
followed to be found
by the water that flows
up to knees, pants hiked
bare feet cupped balanced
on slippery bed stones
slowly smoothed in time
walking against currents
or with; a whim uncoupled
from all that is wished.
You were with me, the whole
time I was imagined gone,
oblivious to importance
when even leaves fluttering on
their fixed sticks sound
loud as the rippling creek
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True darkness
you know
on clear nights
when clouds
reflecting
their illuminated oversight
are fallen
in that sight
that only goes out
Clouds home town
street lights
orange electric
arced all above
excepting the night
gone out
in clarity
the singular cold
thinning of air
that spreads
between faces
as density moves
from the center
released
in an accident
of force
that is left
unclaimed
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I never thought
working to improve
alignment would reveal
teeth set in jaws
on a misaligned skull,
throat twisted sideways
consciously moved to
straight between the ears
with each swallow
requiring I look up –
arms stretched out
until shoulders pop,
fingers fanned widely,
and Adam's apple
bobbing to lay the head
gently left then right
then centered again
across the forehead
allowing it all
to drop back down
in a new learned state
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I remember the contours of your thought
more than any one thing. Quiet smiles,
drawn out and peppered with tiny points
that irritate and vex, a succulent seasoning
always landed in the best place by surprise.
And the deeper voice, longing to escape
its uniformity, buried in a thousand tasks.
I am left wondering, is confusion cured
by embracing that reasonable state,
where destinations, made to order, fit
snugly as I remember you sitting there? Or
is it worse knowing all that must be done
from now, on past tomorrow, and further,
to replace confusion with a narrow madness
aligned automatically clear out to the end?
Whatever the cause, now you are free
to live beyond an intention only the smallest
fraction left to yourself, ever desired
to begin with – free as you always are
when growth and uncertainty are one,
and the delayed fear of an unknown heart
is revealed, beating as it always appears
but stronger, confident in the new chance.
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It is inevitable – time corrects
everything imagined
The young, believing their freshness
withstands the test, ignorant darkness
emerges even from the smallest belief,
in contrary to hope, reinforce their own
statuesque solid, jaw set, intending toward
the future unburdened by the old,
yet bound soon to crumble as their own
new relic, erected in squares, bronzed
immobile, awaiting the newest young
to be pulled down in judgment with all
the small corrections admitted might be
Sunlight on the grass
Falls to a random green shoot
Without knowing choice
what fast wit is there
in stillness? what
completeness is found
through followers?
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It is comforting, your concern
being conveniently machined
to fit this container
as you plumb it
confident as an artificer
versed in human shapes,
poured into tired forms, as
if passion, even shaded,
remained for any of us.
But it is gone, used up. Years
of prospecting, deep shafts
drilled through the mantle,
striking dark gold pumped
up and out until you find,
surprisingly, the earth is flawed
by its own emptiness
And so I confess, that the veins
beneath this mantle continue
their flow, slow and unabated,
unreachable by such tools
requiring firmament
to grasp a position –
and may, as a curvature accepts
the weight of objects to move them,
simply observe the circular motion
as a mathematic effect of such effort.
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Sound coming from speakers
sounds like thunder deeper
because it is not real
and there are things mixed
in with children voices
and birds who are not fond
of storms
a radio out in the far Midwest
that no longer exists tuning in
frequencies, tuning in, a nostalgic
dance with electronic scrapings
in the picturesque wheat field
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it is strange
not knowing
your enemy
who must be
found hiding
growing ever
larger in dark
foreign caves
or not so
limited
spread to all
who are forced
to play designs
leaped to arms
in brainless rage
waged ongoing
in a coffered heft
it is strange
not knowing
your enemy
who must be
found hiding
growing ever
larger in dark