Whiteness

Whiteness

Please, not just yet.
A sweet fragrance
in all that touches you is
unfinished.
Wait with me as I wait.
Bring your hair to me.
Your shoulders wrapped --

You fall and breathe me in.
We do not speak words.
-- in that dress tonight
yield to whiteness beneath.

The privilege, darling
of unsinned sin
is about to commit itself.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Two Sheets

 
Two Sheets

Two sheets flapping in the wind.
Some things in life will outlive you.
Life, sheets, and wind.

When you no longer can, they will.
Live -- life -- alive.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The Next Slow One

The Next Slow One

It was hellish to wait watching you dance with others,
while lovely.
Agonizing to envision future cowardice on my part.
The time would come.

A tree grew taller in the interim. Forests were born
and died, turning to coal.
Countries were toured, sunny beaches lain upon
before [miracle] --

the band, slowing as my heart raced in apposite time
obliged my resolve.
Your smile an echo of the first notes in that song --
you gave me your hand.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

My Foot In It

My Foot In It

I like concrete. Trees?
Terrific! If they were better
skyscrapers would be wooden.

We need it, and so much of it.
I kissed a wall once -- only
because it was so concrete.

Abstract art? I prefer reality.
Bridges falling down? I would
rather they stand. Endure.

I will die in a few years, decades
at best. But when I was a kid
they made a sidewalk and I put

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Etre

Etre

I saw a deer being hit by a car.
Language is funny. Human being. Being in love.
Being. To be. Etre. Verbalizing existence itself
even if we have to mention being dead.

What interests me most is being in love.
Being is the most important word of the three.
When it leaves, the others deny ever being there.
But oh, when it stays --

I think that the being part is like saying
I saw a deer being hit by a car.
A cat, being cat-like, walked across a parking lot.
-- someone wants to hear more of the story.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Weeds

Weeds

Growing just where I struggle, they thrive,
taking some of the water intended for me.

One day I will be a tomato, and damn it,
this ____ is drawing from me something I want.
I curse the wind, Mother Nature, and even God.
Must I befriend meanwhile, this vagrant?
Usurper of my moisture, squatter of my ground.

I longed for cleaner landings, says the weed.
Why must I share my thirst with a peasant?
Common vegetable. Good for nothing but the
table of a beast.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Traffic Lights

Traffic Lights

We hear that death and taxes are the constant.
The two things that are sure.
But I say traffic lights.

Red, orange and green are on duty.
Stop, wait, or go on through.
At any intersection, these are the options.

To disobey them is a freedom, yes.
But like life's own signals, to do so regularly,
is to learn they knew best.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

One Star

One Star

On the balcony just now, two clouds
like parentheses around a star saw me
seeing them. And it struck me.

We use the word asterisk to refer to
something beyond the text. Some
greater explanation needed.

Indeed. This twinkly light.
How silly we are to think that an added
e, i, s, and k, could help us see further.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Monsters On The Island

Monsters On The Island

Coconuts and those red fruits we love.
Sun. Sand in the toes, waves washing
golden blue as birds we can pet sing.

Night fires. Watching stories swirl up
as we speak them -- flame blurring
you to me, me to you -- into existence.

Rain cannot spoil this, nor storm bring
a longing for rescue. Four winds tear
us limb from limb, our spirits joined, go.

But there is a fierce terror of the mind.
Dream of what once was. Healed only by
your hand in my hair, and the whisper

Those are memories. Only memories.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Please

Please

It's not at all the rain, no. Nor the wind.
All things considered we both know
we've been summer to each other. But
autumn's turning.

I just need your next words to be a sweater.
Your embrace, a blanket over me.
Just need your eyes to have a fire that warms
without burning.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The Second Thing

The Second Thing

Some will tell you it's where you've been.
Others, where you're going.

What to believe? I suggest
living a bit beyond your first impression.

Smiling with me as we together realize
it's mostly --

© Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011

Meteorshower

Meteorshower

You said There's one, pointing, and as I turned
I saw one that you missed as you looked at me

Our lips touched, and we forgot why we're alive.

They say that when you wish on one, you get it.
You get what it is you wish for. But I had no time

to wish for anything. I was too busy seeing, on
the inside of my eyelids, something greater than

stars, falling or otherwise.
Our lips touched, and we forgot why we're alive.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Welcome To Her World

Welcome To Her World

Every astronaut should quiver.
Entering a spaceship, you have every right to ask:

- Will I need an alternate oxygen source?
- When will I be back?
- Are the locals reasonable?
- Have others made this voyage and lived?
-………how many?

- The raised eyebrow. What does it mean?

Every astronaut should quiver.
Entering a spaceship, you have every right to ask.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The End

The End

It was the walking away.

The footsteps of it all, the sound
heels on floor, steps, street, clouds.

A sorry kiss on your knees, ankles
toes. Soul. I realized.

North and south can meet again.
East and west -- never.

It was the walking away.
The setting sun.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Perfect People

Perfect People

Spent a night in a forest
looking for a flawless tree.

Somewhere around three a.m.
I wondered about criteria.

Height? Girth? Bark texture? Leaves?
Root dispersion? Affinity to others?

Does this tree provide a natural habitat for animals or at least timber for homes for animals that pay taxes?

I got weary, and fast.
Leaned against one that made me sleep.

My last thought? The next time I do this
I'll set out in the daytime.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Bethany

Bethany

I know Bethany gets Hamlet in much the same way that I do.
Downward cast, possible tears. Book open, she followed
every word in the movie. Forefinger on text
she stayed, lingered as the bell long past wrung
faded. Footsteps in the hall.

This is not just a part, but all
that matters. For every word spoken, another sung
caused a living Ophelia to dread the next.
And an English teacher, for lack of them, swallowed --
I know Bethany gets Hamlet in much the same way that I do.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Promontory

Promontory

Through a sliver of eyelid I felt you shiver.
Not from wind or cold -- it was fear I saw.
Waves in your eyes, mist at my back.

Rocks and fish below, arms the horizon.
Quit it you pleaded as I blinded myself
abandoning my birth to your friendship.

My birth, life, and death, at a promontory.
An uncaring sea slapping in approval
of your decision to hug me closer to you.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Untitled

Untitled

Face a fretboard he knelt, fingers webs
spun of pain.
A songbird on a tuning peg would bow
when the old guitarist was done

-- then fly away.
The piazza rang with children
scrabbling for the coins left behind.

For at a certain moment each day
the old guitarist would simply vanish.
No one having heard knowing why
-- he played at all.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Homonym

Homonym

Matter.

In the first sense, not what is thought or felt.
Rather that which is held, seen or smelled.

In the second, everything physical scatters.
Add an "s", and only what is invisible...

© Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

The Sigh of a Frog

The Sigh of a Frog

If infinity is what we think it is then whatever you can think
of, exists. Not convinced? Travel a bit further, it will turn up.
Go faster. It will reveal itself prior to your thoughts.

A far greater mystery lies nestled in a folded-in-upon-
itself perception that your imagination counts for something.

[The frog I just saw jump from here to there reconsidered.
-- Simply exhaled, and sat.]

In the beginning God created the heavens and the --
Thing is, infinity seems to limit itself only to as many other
titles the contents of its own poem can justify.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Sparks

Sparks

A big deal is made of the invention of fire.
Rightfully so.
Think of how many things would not exist
if someone had not frictated something against another
until pre-undisturbed atoms said Uncle.

Combustation.
You would not be driving a car, or reading about
anything on a screen. The main reason your house
would be in the dark is because you would not have one.

Before any marshmallows were properly roasted
several cavemen watched sparks run aground.
Think of this next time you watch the sun set, leaving
the earth unburned.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

A Peahen Complains

A Peahen Complains

Thank God for that sunroof idea. Those two giraffes
were about asphyxiated before Shem cranked it open.
What angers me most? None of us asked for this.

Follow the ostriches. Follow the emus. Follow follow
follow. If I had hands I would have taken that air horn
and flung it into Ethiopia. We marched like animals.

Granted, nearly anything is better than drowning.
But the noise and smell is killing me. On the intercom I
heard that the Captain sent out a reconnaissance dove.

Rumour is we land tomorrow. Listen up now, Horatio.
Evolve some better tailfeathers! Something with planets
on it -- something your future daughter cannot resist.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Wheat

Wheat

It happened. Called everything within me to account.
I had to process the possibility of hallucination,
questioning every answer I knew.
It was so exhilarating to have to do all of this, knowing
I would be stumped. I would start all over, and re-see it.

The Beach Boys, telling about their 409, the visor down.
Afloat on the next asphalt mirage, sinking as we arrived.
The thing you did with your hair. Pulling it from your collar
just as a breeze rippled a field you could not see.
Behind. Beside you. To my right, wheat bending.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Six Feet Away

Six Feet Away

A mile was not required, a city block un-summoned.
No need to restate anything with respect to as the crow flies
or refer to with the wind or against it.

Whatever is just beyond a body length was far enough.
You know, when I was a kid I laughed
pushing two magnets apart by reversing the poles.

But you turned from me.

[Never was anything so instantly realized, as the event
I now describe.
Whatever is required to reverse this --
the thing that keeps you from walking further
-- it has everything to do with why the planet we live on
has a sun to keep it warm.]

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Sudden Coronation

Sudden Coronation

My pleas unheard, the wand hovering.
This is not what I meant at all -- Kitty
skittered in fright, slinking to her mat
-- send me not to eternal flatness.
a backward glance curling head to tail.

But you must decide this very moment!
Curses that I agreed to such a wager.
Struck by the bad breath and harsh voice
of this fairy I quickly assessed her terms.
The four choices: Clubs. Spades. Hearts or

Diamonds! I shouted. The only one in profile.
For I will not look full on this tragedy. Kitty
snarled a sad mewl as the wand hit my head.
Losing my balance, losing my very legs
I fell forward onto my left cheek, silent.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010