Hooks

Hooks

Darkness had not finished with the air.
Cool, it filled our excited lungs as we ran
to the dam. The hum of pent-up power.

Before the floodgates open, all is laid bare.
What was covered, snagged. Revealed.
Hurry, someone woke earlier. See?

Like gulls, we ignore last night’s shoreline
and skip to the treasures. Everywhere.
Each rock seeming to yield shiny tackle.

Laughing, we know that we will catch fish
with these. Look at this new one, David.
The guy probably cast it only once or twice.

Only Jesus could have walked here last night
as the mosquitoes ate us. And we reeled.
With a divine ease now, we free the hooks.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Dog

Dog

Look at a dog.
A dog is thinking. Unlike
A cat, say. A cat is sleeping.
And dreaming of more sleep.

But look at a dog.
His tail is a separate entity.
Unlike a horse.
Horsetail is pragmatic.

Check out this dog.
Not that one, the other --
With the dripping tongue.
There is nothing as salivic.

I knew one named Bogey.
I’ve met no man, smarter.
Even his owner. → Dumb,
Compared.

Ever hear one in October
Barking far away? Yeah.
It chills a part of you you
Knew not was there until.

Look at a dog.
They say a chimp is closest
To who we are. Look at a dog
And say Bullshit with me.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Mars On Vacation

Mars On Vacation

Why do we call it sleeping together
When hibernation is the last thing on either mind?
I slept not a wink.
But I think you did. Or maybe I am mistaken.

You looked so at peace.
And that’s another odd phrase. We say it
As though it is the profoundest mystery,
When the furthest thing from anyone’s mind is war.

I looked upon your eyes and your lips
As you lay in our bed of comfort, with me.
Bed of comfort.
Heaven’s anklet.
Whiskers disturbed from purring.
Mist on Avalon.
Juno satiated.
Jupiter undone.
Mars on vacation.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Camille

Camille

I thought I had a favorite song until
eyes half shut and vodka in flight
a lifetime of longing beckoned me
from the neck up, to the stage.

I turned to see you as oblivious to
my terror as a deer in the branches
pulls leaves before hearing fear.
As though no one’s life was over –

You went on, chorus and verse.
And a piano tried to add a little
something to the perfection of
my demise, my neck-down defeat.

Forgetting you is not the problem.
I have since learned that I must.
But tell me, Camille, how will I
ever remember anything else?

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Unconcerned

Unconcerned

Thirty kilometres a second around the Sun
We fly all of us do. White Black Yellow Red
And Unconcerned.
The Sun nearly ten times as quickly cruises
The Milky Way. Exploding Hot Yellow Bright
And Unconcerned.

Our galaxy two and a half times as fast rips
To the Virgo cluster. Swirling White Dancing
And Unconcerned.
Where anything larger than the Milky Way
Flies we can only guess. Milky Itchy Horny
And Unconcerned.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

A Name In The Sand

 
A Name In The Sand

Your hand once held my own, your
Name, the sweetest note
In a song unfinished --
The reason for my joy. Now,
Sand -- laid out in its infinity
Reminds me of the countless times
My thoughts have held you, while my
Heart was so lonely
That I fell to my knees.

I bend down and write,
Still thinking about you -- sometimes
Love is a hidden message
You find in the first word of each line.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Signals

Signals

What if the lovers were subjected to signals?
No speech. No lips. Armless. What if
Tied up, only the eyes were allowed travel?

Tell me how, across this distance, they would
Convey the most elementary intent?
Tell me how the most elementary --

Stop. I see it now. She tells him with an eyebrow
Lowering, that the fight is over. She is sending
Herself over to him.

The ropes loosen, no one knows how,
Or cares. How. She is untying them.
And this is all that matters.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Old and Wise.

Old and Wise

We link these words together as though
they appear in the dictionary on the same page.
It is impossible to be old and stupid?

I do not believe that years are a constant,
no more than rings on a severed tree
tell anything of height.

Old and stupid is a reality.
As is youth and wisdom.
The difference being how we think,
no matter the current hemisphere
of life.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008