28 Poems!

Here's my progress on my "write a poem each day of 2010" resolution. Please let me know if any stand out for you.

121-To bed

I heard you. Hush.
I told you, "Shush."

Shhhh and shush;
now don't you fuss.

Please don't riot;
just be quiet.

I love you too;
now don't you move.

Yes, I've seen it;
Stop! I mean it.

Don't be weepy;
just get sleepy.

122-Undiscovered poets

I guess we knew no one cared,
but we pushed on anyway,
because we had nothing else,
and besides, our health wasn't
anything to brag about
or you know we'd be bragging,
because that is how we are,
and it's how we'll always be,
even if you'll never read.

123-Then that

The one thing I believe:
the ebb and flow of momentum.
I won't point my fingers.

I don't trust buildings
without windows or cars
with windows tinted.

In my dream, she said,
"The world ain't no place
for a good man to live."

124-Procession

I have trouble falling asleep in Ohio,
and everyone knows it has everything
to do with the space between here
and there. Everywhere I go I think
wish you were here. The sound of my
turn signal, the beat of my heart--
when I blink, when I flutter--
I want her to bother to turn me
on or out without whispering why.
Just a touch or a sigh I can
turn into a sign, a reason to sing
or bend with the wind like the world's
loneliest sapling. Distance is sapping
the fun from living, but I know
full well the reason we yearn is so
that we long to someday return.

125-To begin

Push a pen to paper
and expect it to bleed
because that's what happens
when she catches your eyes
like fireflies in a jar
she keeps under the sink
where no light can escape
and the pipes drip slowly
with careful abandon.

126-Initiation Point

too many signs suggest
too many songs to sing

no one said you had to
but you did anyway

fingers on one hand lock
fingers of other hands

one smile leads to one
more smile trailing off

127-Like chickens

I always think
birds like chickens
are mammals, but
they never are.

128-Songs of the tormented

Once upon a night like this--
Once upon a night like this--

and then that ache I felt.

129-Invasion of the poets

We stoned the first one, thinking
it was just an anomaly,
but then, another came and
another. Next thing we knew
they had spread all over
until it wasn't worth
the effort of trying to kill them.
So we hid our daughters and
tried ignoring them, swatting
only if they got too close.

130-Fundamentals

I imagine you imagining me,
but I know there's not much magic here--so
I just let myself sleep, because, you know,
in my dreams, you're standing there with your hair
creeping down your shoulders, and I'm holding
you closer telling you everything.

131-60

Sprinkles in a puddle
under the moonlight
makeover of another
Monday in mid-July.
Even he can't bother
reminding her Tuesday

plans on still coming--
offering instead his
ear, his arm around her
mid-section, his lips on hers.

132-Wolf Man

I know what it's like to love someone
who turns into something else against
his own will. I know how that someone

can forget what he's done the next day,
but it doesn't change the facts the sun
reveals. To kill and love the same way,

that man hunts and shakes every fence--
snarl by night and smile by day--
searching for someone to love against.

133-Control

Let's negotiate. Can I tear out my brain?
I don't want to remember anything, and
I wear my jacket because I'm part reptile,
and I need to control my body heat. That's
why I mind and why I cannot settle down.

134-Babies see black & white

Wear glasses & part your hair
a new direction. Throw
on a cape & tights. Save my
life & pretend we've never
met. I'll love you without
knowing; you'll love me without
showing.

135-Transformation

The same stream streams
behind my grandmother's house
as when I was a child,
but I've grown afraid
of the water I used
to wade through in summer.

136-Transformation v.2

Every day, I become more aware
every day is one less chance to bear
everyday fears less fair than the fare
every day request for me to care.

137-Transformation v.3

The wasp sting was actually
a paper cut with grass--
so perhaps a grass cut.

Besides, some snakes shed
while other snakes molt;
they all lose their skins.

138-lune

trees never wander
but still spread
across open fields

139-Our health

Every morning, we rise and
shine slow wondering where our sleep
has gone, wondering how we'll reach
our two destinations on time.

Every morning, we rush and
worry; every morning, we
rub our eyes and wonder how; but
every morning, we make it.

This morning, I drum the steering
wheel and beg the light to change green
just as a cat pounces a bird
reminding me what's important.

140-Ineffective

My fingers on the coast--
pressure that builds until
something words can't contain
finally has to bleed--
try to do what they can't

141-swallowing air

destroy the farms
without killing
the animals--

that dead oil
drill still bleeding
across the gulf

we knew it was
too good to be
here forever

like holding air
our surrender--
a motorbike

look at that farm--
that factory--
that firm handshake

empty billboards
advertising
their emptiness

142-Transmission

Radio towers transmit signals: If
you ask for a kiss, they give you a kick.
Does she kick you? That is the love alarm.
Her house caught fire--so she moved elsewhere.

143-The dead are shivering

You've got to be cold-hearted to raise cattle,
to raise pigs. Watch them grow from infancy and
then let the ax fall. A man on a ladder
paints a house white. The beauty of just getting
this moment and the next, a never ending
series of strip malls to pass while thinking
there's nothing you can do to stop the bleeding.

144-Gambler

I guess she could tell I was
out of it. Eyes unfocused
and me running into walls,
appliances and her bed
unmade as if that mattered.
A dance is a touch is a
tell, and she's a wild card
who wants me to settle down.

145-shopping cart

rattle rattle
fill myself full
of whatever
can fit inside
and then rattle

146-Ways to kill a flower

She loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me; she loves me not;
she loves me! O, marigold!

147-system

beat a moon out of the bushes
& into a cage because when
one heart beats another burns white
hot for a chance to chase a sun
as if it's not at the center

148-Is there a fire?

Lately, my dreams have involved me
being falsely accused. Can I
forgive a cross decorated
as a man scaring me? A star
streaks across the horizon and
dissolves into horse shit. Never
said I was the holy spirit,
my face moving over water
and looking for attention, just
a little tension suspending
my belief. Communication
is a means, not an end. Must I
make sense for you to listen? Phone
a friend; get a clue. Do what you
have to do to follow the long
tail of this kite stuck in a tree.

*****

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