a mushroom grows in winter

last seen
in empty street
hands on crooked chin

just vanish

old island junction split

heard a witness screaming
consumed in lives

a number of years
strung like murder

investigations

unsolved reunion cases

not long after
abduction border lines
decomposing

no body knows

just jump off rutted roads
no tires to churn
the light

Lauryl

*Originally appeared in the Light Ekphrastic*

"Death is acommin in

                                    and mocks my loss of Liberty"

63. The Tree

Cast a shadow over villages

made into the face of the moon,

a tree impervious to seasons, to death,

a pile of limbs, no dent,

in its cradle of branches,

a man, sap marks his blade,

blood, sweat, aching steel,

folded and sharpened by fire,

absurd Wu Gang chopping,

chopping still;

immortality,

an impossible task.

39. Daphne

my fingernails

                        now leaves before the night

for winter

shall

never

wilt

tho earth may dry and crack

my roots

stick

firm

sink deep

                        shall never die

52. Lust/Chastity

a chase

a tragedy

the word once spoken is law

an oath

an apology

46. Genes

Bay Laurel:

of the order Laurales

of the family Lauraceae

of the Genes Laurus

of the species L. nobilis

5. Chastity/Lust

an anachronism

an image

works written for the page

a relic

a wreath

18. Apollo

By her limbs

                        I have wronged

yet I will not learn

but yearn

through an arrow

and in so doing

mourn

tho the earth may pass before my age

I shall

not want

                        shall not be sated

36. The Moon

Madcap, the 64 signs

hear tell of the rabbit,

lives on the moon,

there, he pounds the medicine

of the earth,

in the lunar light,

for the coming age,

the luster, holy water

reflected in

Buddha’s pail;

a body never burns.

Pure Water

Realize the impermanence
of society--the lies of this
evolution--all this medication--
science--exists to cloud your
brain--from truth, simple truth
insanity of truth--
life is fading nothingness
within the great void--
         you are a figment of
a fevered mind--
     machinations of robot will--
school doctors books laws
governments currency work
luxuries products rent debts
      exist to tether your soul
to mundane lies--
     know truth is emptiness
     as only fools do, unafraid
to admit all your pursuits
are without meaning
     cast-off the ego & seek
     essential truth/mind
Remember beginning-less time
     cry of seagull
     crashing waves
sad memories of karma building,
          You've built lies
          on
          Karma!
Facts              Facts            Facts
          Facts             Facts
listing, classifying, separating (I am guilty too)
          there are jesters in the
                  folds of space/time
                          ignorant thoughts
                                 the clock is a
                                       Great Demi-God
                                                 tool of subjugation
Heed this lesson, check into sanitarium, find solitude
in ageless, ageforgotten, aging insanity

I carve my poems on
cave walls,
what has man succeeded in?

Killing Earth's oldest trees?
Its oldest living thing?
Freezing saintly clams?

Progress is a bitter untruth
life is an ever bitter lie,

vanity is sanity,
pour another cup on pure tanned thighs

How can I escape sight? taste? sensation? noise?

I am hypocrite, I am just like
you.

There's nothing

consider me a day behind
darlin',
a dollar beyond, under the
cascading star blanket
headed west long ago--did I pick up the
tab? No, I don't think so,
I was already gone--

so write me sweet letters,
and cry and moan and wail,
I've forgotten everything
left behind in pictures, still
I regret leaving you,

but I'm so far out,
I can't see anything back there--
years are fuzzy memories
faces eyes smiles remarks

I carry them all on my back
like white light
there's nothing, nothing,

there's nothing

It's gonna rain pretty hard so get the umbrella

And it happened pretty fast,
the world blinked a
worldly knowing whirling
world blink
as if to say

"I told you so,
remember many years ago?"

crossing the Bering Strait,
she carved it,
carved it with jagged rocks
and crushed insects,
streaks of
primary colors along
the surface of our minds
the world mind
the consumed conscious
passed down and willed forth,
to another time,
swimming through weeds
and overgrown foliage
green and glowing
like some deadly lazarus pit
sucking us into forget,
or madness--

a weighty childish madness,
given to all her offspring,
meant to guide us-

home...