From March

From March

3-8-5

Grand Canyon

A condor circling spotted me
trail thinned to guesswork
red rock and weed
glancing up, canyon edge wavers
holes funnel sunlight
and water
millions of years and tunnels so smooth

my hand running over
concave earth
striations
in curved caverns
so hallo inside

the call of a hawk cawed far
space to hunt
a snake under boulder
and purple bud withering in
heat

animalian, stone cold
and water walking downstream
away from here
measures the weight on my back
and the ground I will sleep on
with
in.
3-11-5

Every detail of dinner was perfect
Lemon complemented heat
Crabmeat cooled oniony sweetness
A flute of champagne
Belgian endive with figs
Candles and flames
Four friends and new moon

And I couldn't help noticing the hole
Gaping in our evening
Amorphous, subtle
I'm not sure they felt it but I think they did
We were incomplete

Missing that final spice
Fullness without food
The longing life pulls on its strings
Dragging behind
Racing ahead
Never here, now.

We looked into each other's eyes
As mirrors
Pushing in and pulling out
Our mouths empty
Stomachs full

The candles waned and I wanted more
Of nothing that had been
There
But of what lingers in that darkness
Between courses
Between us
Between these moments
We live.
3-14-05

The barrage of
this and that
of to do and to get
in bundles and tasks
here and there

I cover points on the map
great Z's and X's
marking my spots
at furious speeds

it's only in my car
the space of the lines
take shape
the seconds between here and there
fill with me
with life
and you

I think
this is it.
I could die now,
nowhere on the map
above the relief
and keep going

Sometimes it seems
the only stillness comes
when I'm moving,
when here is nowhere
and there hasn't come yet.

It's then I'm most alive—
when you are alive
to me
so much more than when we are
here
when we touch with words
on bodies

I know you best in my car
suspended somewhere
between
3-9-5

Today smelled like Spring
Of sun and wood
And wet bark

Today sounded of whistles
And breezes
Of growing and
Green

I trod the impenetrable silence between people
I trod the crumbling causeway
I looked into faces looking in
Looking back
Looking on
Themselves without notice

I opened my palm for a beetle bug to crawl
With all its legs and eyes,
Seeing, smelling, feeling me.

So much more human
So much more knowing than
multitudes of inward eyed faces
Looking away

Into a still winter day
The sun shone,
sparsely seen.

3-12-05

I see red
and snowflakes and memory falling
city lights
burning
creased-skin touches
hands and trees
blackening before red skies
blanketing eternity this moment,
again.

and people
the pavement feet
worn down around
one living thing
one song

earth drenched in us
the movers
time takers
feeling here
one eternity

once
we walk under its wings.