Forgiveness

Man, you could build a whole brand around this thing Handle the snakes And orchestrate all kinds of glittery manifestations Jittery hands and holy demonstrations Slippery tongues and wordless intonations Oh you don’t speak em? Just take some words and tweak em That’s right, that’s the ticket Show it to the man at the door And he’ll tell you where to stick it But just between you and me? Forget it It’s not a brand...

She is the one Who first loved me enough To show me I could be A better man than I was   And you can imagine How that worked out... Can a man with an inner-tube And a cooler full of beers Turn a stagnant pond Into a mighty river Just by jumping in?   And yet… She is the one Who continued to love me enough To try to chip away To grind and...

The dust of our bodies Remain fixed to the canyon walls Our skin stretches over boulder And gully alike On opposite sides Of the mighty river Too swollen now to swim   One river canyon Yet happily divided Tending the gardens we’ve planted Each on our own riverbank The rushing river sinks deep And saturates the earth And waters the beds That we weed today And harvest for the feast That we’re preparing For tomorrow...

When two bodies collide There will always be A fault line to find In you or in me But not now For today we are lovers Folded one around the other Cliffs and chasms Metamorphic And sedimentary flesh Thrust like beating hearts Love is a precipice We stand on the edge And as we spill over We fall into the wind And rise like mountains On the updraft And from these higher heavens We wonder...

Humboldt County The house we call our own Her laughter now fills this home It defies logic and reason And all good doctrine It sets sharply against The crushing weight of debt And doubt It ripples down the hall Like waves that dance On an ocean that will drown you Without thinking twice   From the depths I think about thirty different things All at once I should have painted more often And maybe wrote...

As you know We held your memorial last weekend While your laughter still hung in the air Like chandeliers From the heavy wooden beams Of the empty sanctuary You’ve left us   Where we reminded ourselves For a time, times, and half a time again That you would have heard by now “Well done, good and faithful servant…” Words of acceptance Approval Even affection That we all so long to hear   Yes, there were...

Heather Road Long Beach, California The actual street sign Hung on the wall In her room down the hall   She was just a child Leading a rebellion With discarded toys Striking out At them At us At herself And though she made a fool of the enemy Throughout the Ten Year War She lost the final battle yesterday And now she’s gone   She left home too soon There was heaviness in the entry...

“Will this be your first?” That was my first stupid question for them I’m not very good at this They were a beautiful young couple Watching another perfect Southern California sunset From the edge of a crumbling cliff Over the mirror of the sea Clearly expecting A green flash I’d just finished drinking 3 beers That’s not exactly the usual for me But I was with good friends that day And it sometimes goes that...

Let the new year begin And let the last one end As the keys punch the headlines Into your skin Burning hot like cattle brands Will you have a choice Or will it be out of your hands? Will you see what is written? Will you read your last rites? Will it be everything black Or everything white? Everything day Or everything night? Is it all or nothing? Just this or just that? The record...

Who of us isn’t a word about to be spoken to a friend? A ship about to leave the local harbor? When the anchor is pulled We’ll sail into a new tomorrow As dark and unknowable As the deep   Who of us isn’t question asked in earnest? A fishing vessel on the open ocean? Lines cast and waiting To bring in a harvest To feed the world Maybe today   Who of us isn’t...