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3/3/09

The streets have taken
what warmth there is,
heat from the wheels and feet,
and now they glisten

March has come with its mane
stiff, ruffled, and white,
nothing about the morning
gives indication of nearby vernal days

I piece together a single face,
one nose, one eye budding out,
if there is snow under us,
we still can make it to the spring.

 

Just a Glimpse

One day I heard her,
A voice like a mermaid’s call,
Forming notes in the desert air
For the sand to dance around.
A soft song from a wet chamber,
Music swimming to my ear,
Feeding curiosity to my eye.
No car, no truck, no bus,
Could wreck her song to me,
The loving arms of the horizon,
Absorbed their mechanical sounds.

Did she know that I could hear her?
Did she know that anybody could?
Did she know that she was drawing me in?
Did she know that my eyes wanted more?

The Hibernian hymn,
The ode to crags and cairns
Scratched across a green land
And its inhabitants,
Was an invitation for me.
I wanted to make this a concert,
I wanted to become her audience.

From whom did this voice come?
Or what?
She could have been but a machine.
I had to see,
See if what I heard was real.

I crawled across her lawn,
To see her in the window.
Carefully I treaded the sea of pebbles,
To not disturb the rocky waves.
I did not want to hear my steps,
To let me know I was here,
Doing this.

I shielded myself in trellis and vine,
And peered through to the private room,
To the tiled, wet room.
The singer’s bath was finished,
But her voice continued.
It was a mere costume change.

She was a Venus carved into a fertility God,
Curved, smooth.
I was blocked by forgiving mist from her,
So she could not see my eyes.
Better for her to pretend I wasn’t there,
Better for me to pretend she wouldn’t care.

She was virginal,
Exciting, and disappointing in equal measure.
Enough for me to break the glass and take her.
Enough for me to enter and shake her.