RADICALIZED

When I hear, 

up in sun-

sizzled buds 

of vermilion, 

the delirious grackles' 

strident singing—

out of hunger, 

out of lust, 

out of anger 

and mistrust—

about how nothing 

has been known 

that hasn't also once 

been lost, 

I'm reminded 

of a unfound time 

before my avian 

soul disembarked  

when I knew 

life on Earth 

was a circumference-

less circle; 

every cry was urgent 

at its infinite center—but 

none of them was 

controversial. 

MERCY COUCH

Unclear how, 

but I suppose I need

to thank heaven 

for that first muzzy 

beat of slow tempo 

after waking up—

when I know 

for a fact that I've 

turned up again

but still am not 

sure what 

to worry about. 

POSSIBILITIES

What is it, I wonder,

about each morning's fresh 

mellow tide of hunches

that makes us forget 

about the fallow 

way each day must end?

The way lovestruck 

birds risk blatant overtures 

in still-bare branches

or the frisky wind 

that rolls disenchanted

boxes down alleys everywhere

must serve as narcotic slivers 

to the same hand that doles 

out nightly dread; 

for a fleeting moment, 

last evening's shouts of panic 

melt into golden tender air, 

and the living there is easy 

in the summer 

in our heads. 

FLING

For now, I have decided 

that the best things in life 

are gratis, yes, 

but also disputable; 

like a coquettish 

cardinal swinging 

branch to branch 

and tree to tree, 

I too might be free 

to change my mind 

endlessly—

and the song I sing 

may sound 

unbound, but only 

because it is 

mutable. 

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

Even after 

that sugar rush crash 

of delphic erudition,

no one 

thinks to ask

the most selfish question: 

whence 

these sallow cocoons 

of flesh—why 

would God want 

to obscure his best 

butterflies? 

GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH

Like the silence 

between moans, 

or like reflux 

in the night, 

conviction hits us 

in the gut. 

I feel it in my bones, 

we say—

or, I know that 

in my heart—

because certainty

is selfish—

by which I 

mean: it lives 

inside us. 

Whereas doubt, 

thank goodness, is 

a migratory process, 

a striking out 

for parts unknown. 

We suspect 

it underlies us 

when in fact it 

wouldn't touch us 

with a ten foot pole. 

Like spit 

or a shout, 

it was really only built 

to burst 

from our mouths, 

then bolt 

like hell for its 

actual home. 

IDENTITY POLITIC

As an object in space 

may be extended 

through many different 

time dimensions 

without every really "belonging"

to any of them,

so "i" 

is a shibboleth, 

a torture device 

of convenience, 

a lever used to prod 

parity into abeyance—

better yet: 

a clever code 

used to bootstrap 

the rest of you 

into continuing its 

sentence.

Meanwhile, the past 

and the present 

are your two 

divorced parents:

divisive 

but just a little 

too significant—

indispensable 

to your very 

survival, in fact—

yet acutely 

and instructively  

unwilling 

or unable 

to even so much as 

coexist.