Love Is the Risk

Love, the dutiful wheels

of time, the mother’s

milk, the arthritic

fingers rinsing your dish, the words

you can’t remember (to the music

you can never forget). Love is not the rose

but the soil kissing its feet and water

feeding its verdant bones and sun care-

ssing its palms lifted in prayer.

Love is the risk

the sky took, be-

coming, sacrificing,

letting the stars each take

a share of its heart to shimmer

with the generosity of a being

who has known how it feels to be

loved.

What Is Dog?

What is dog?  Darkness that howls at alien sights.
What is dog?  Foolish dark made of bones and eyes.
What is dog?  What looks dog, acts dog, speaks dog.
What is dog—if there is no God?
What is dog?  Dark inside light.
Death is an acquired taste and I still wait
For mirrors that do not work.
And yet I've seen love as of late
Reflected.  I've seen love take another form.

Portrait of a Robot

I feel nothing for you
I’ve known your cold metallic bones
The arms of steel that fixed my bike
I feel nothing for
Your rusted eyes leaking thick oil
And when you lost your legs and had to crawl
That annoying clicking sound of your heart
When you laid too close....
Last night they put you away
Maybe into the ground
What do I care I
Feel
Nothing.

Library at Night

A homeless man beside the library
His sleeping bones arranged to hungry dreams
Cracked lips that blow as if in ecstasy
And fingers holding fast the Bible dear
His starless head pushing against the wall 
A pencil 'gainst a broken sharpener.