Word Pieces IX

Apollo

Apollo, a six-winged seraph arrayed
with the gods finest gold, warned
me in a reality to avoid hearing
too many symphonies as they are the
vexation of a holy soul
She told me that there is no more
color to paint over the sorrow
greys of today
And warned me not to breathe the
soft fragrances of Spring for it
is only Winter in disguise
She took me by the hand and led me
then to a land without song and
to a sight without tones and
taught me to breathe the still
airs of nothing
And I wept without tears
And cried without voice
And died
Without

Day Rise

Several hundreds and twenty thousand times
the trumpet has sounded the song
of the second coming
Day after day the dead have been raised
incorruptible, world without end
And foolish-virgin-mankind still in
darkness waits for yet the second coming

Holiday Cottages

holiday cottages
sub let to a clean man
cut with shining shoes
and a teacher voice
perhaps a special case
could be made hear
that I cannot walk but
sit in dirt with drink
in hand dragging about
saying that age needs
someone to keep out the rif
maybe a tear could mend the
couch and paint could
cover the stench of two
years since even a soul
was here
quietly the lake looks on
knowing all the while
that the drawn face and
and withered limbs smile a
last goodbye

Ireland

just being
in a barbed wire
thicket world
who with
guns shout
we love
is not enough
to save a single
in the northern
state of
solitary
confinement

The Final Curtain

stage left act I

stepping off in anxious expectation of
waiting trumpets to herald the
arrival of the pantomime star
who is ready to sign the name of god
or some other place in the clouds
who is first to take notice that a voice
behind the quiet gestures cries
who is even there and where is even one
trump to mark the beginning of
stage right act II

(intermission from the crowd)
for a cheap 25 cents fill yourselves
with corn and artificial
flavor the confusion and the expectation
with temporary satiation of a
hunger deeper than cheap fills
away from the noisome quiet
away from the show
away from the cramped quarters of sitting
too close to yourself in the dark
move

up stage act right
now that the producer has full direction
of the show some
scents of a blossoming life
do what must be done
do the lines as written
do the full production
and
the rest of the company
will come at the final
certain

Infant Communion

Cry little one
without a notice of what
is being put together again
Cry when the people cry for
pains to ease and
war to cease
Cry loud when you cannot
understand why you are
here today gone tomorrow
Cry until the little ones
come to understand that
Crying is for re-membering the
Little One

Stop

Alarm
up and with no one get
up and get moving
up in the right direction
Manger
don't lie
there
it's time now to feed and
do what must be done
Move
7:47 late again
cause it to be right anyway
and again
Move
more to give meaning
to the 10:15 and the noon
Angel
us a people who cared little
and loved much
so we say
take a mid after day
Break
down where everyone else is
do whatever else is
before someone again
Starts
and stops you without
anyone who or
anyone knowing why
but never matter it is
Five
a clock somewhere has
stopped long before sunrise
without notice
and you become the
End
with half a day and much
moving yet
to move someone
you too
Stop

The Sending

in late august at summer set
God gently as God only does
    place all the necessary tools
    in his hands with the divine commission
go, work
    forget the world of people users
    of past tense times
et tu absolve
go chisel at the rough-hewn cross
    I have given you to follow
ora labora

soon you will begin to see
    a clearing in the center
    a mirror image and
seeing that God repeats certain miracles
    rejoice for another Francis and another
    also noticed the yellow Appalachian primrose
another once held a sparrow in hand
    wanting to breathe the breath of living 
    into the feathered lifeless limbs of flight
another once laid on a hillside cemetery and
    felt the heartbeat of lovers past
    side by side

walk on now with sure and certain footsteps
walk on as Simon with the burden of the 
    cross on your shoulders
walk on with the chain of holy love
    binding you and another and the Image
    breast on heart
    never to stand again on the dark
polar regions of loneliness