She Doesn't Know

She Doesn't Know

Thinks that yesterday was something I've done before.
That tear was because of the sand, the wind
and my heart always beats that fast.

I've never even flown a kite before the string
between her fingers seared mine
soaring outwards in abandon.

Never clinked a glass with quite that dazzle.
Thrown back my own neck in a movie-perfect
laugh without a script.

She thinks that she is not the reason I have
never been myself before this very moment.
Now. And my heart always beats this fast.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Pumping Water

Pumping Water

Separate buses, but the same stops.
Yours the grade threes. Mine the fours.
The clamor.
We spilled out

between somewhere and other, sweating.
Thing is, right now it is all more real

Your kids surrounded you while mine
ran amok. Always in control, you.
Slapdash, my grade fours were rabid!

Unprepared slavering beasts
to your styrofoam cup-holding charges
drinking in satiated blasts.

than it was then. Me, wondering
for twenty years now...

Morning light is falling upon the shut eyes
once fixed upon a broken pump-handle.

the last word of your unfinished sentence
"Piece of ____."

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

A Wallet Moment

A Wallet Moment

I smashed a car because my arm was around you.
I smashed a car because I did not know how to drive.
I smashed a car because I had never driven one before.

This is my dad's car, you cried, in front of that 7-11.
And the guy was storming out of the place, swearing.
The most honest moment of my life. A wallet moment.

His door looked really pushed in. No. Demolished.
Without leaving my seat, as it got incredibly warmer,
I settled the matter. Will this eradicate the difficulty?

He sifted through some hundreds, peppered with fifties.
And nodded, as I went the extra mile, telling him of my
first night behind the wheel of anything faster than me.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Dancing Bear

Dancing Bear

Why have we not seen it yet?

It was a whimpering appeal -- not unlike the deflation
of desire. But the pace was maintained, lockstep
we were marching toward an explanation, or not.

Passing The Earl of Sussex, then Nicholas Hoare
you again moaned When and Where? Cried fatigue
if nothing else would keep you from this meeting.

But then we turned to the left and entered a courtyard.
I admit, I was startled when the clanging of my own skull
against the statue rivaled the clamor of your lips.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Chord

Chord

Not that you could see it, but a heavy snow
fell behind you. Droplets in flake form.
Who would imagine such a thing to exist?

Certainly I, in my current state, winking,
asking as if I knew the right answer
did not. Imagine… or know. Yet asked

you, Chord or individual note,
which do you prefer?

Non-answer, bald as the moon -- and just
louder than the white. The tilt of your head
was the purest of these I have ever heard.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010