I wrote this one the same night I wrote I will bless the Lord. I wrote this one first, then the other. That seems fitting to me. Still, I recorded them in the opposite order. Mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing with the harmonica. They do go together, though; the former inspiring the latter. In the spirit of Cash and the harp of Springsteen:
Night a whisper o’er a flame a trigger and a knife phantom on my side Night she went and left me ‘lone left skin and blood and bone colored my whole life blisters bled and dried wallet harp and comb treasures in a tomb . Sin bottles crowd my bed balled against the wind knees up to my chin Sin breaking for the trench but shot to death instead I’m pulling back the skin to let the fever in blackened flesh and stench bullet in my head . Night a man inside the gate asking for a light malice in his eye Night treats me like a whore swallows up the score end my song before it’s time I pull out another dime climb back out onto the floor and ask to dance some moreCategory Archives: New Poem
Let there be asparagus
I will bless the Lord
I will bless the Lord who’s taken on my sin who blasted out the stone that used to be my heart.
I will bless the Lord until I die and when that day arrives I’ll join Him in the sky!
I will bless the Lord how can I help but sing He’s burned up all my loss an offering of love.
I will bless the Lord The birds are in the air they’re swirling in His palm a testament of love.
I will bless the Lord until I die and when that day arrives I’ll join Him in the sky!
I will bless the Lord the Lord who reigns within Composer of the light Maker of the day.
I will bless the Lord the One, the only One Fierce lover of my soul all joy and love and hope!
I will bless the Lord until I die and when that day arrives I’ll join Him in the sky!
Broke Open
I am a caged animal.
My face is against the metal
and the oncoming storm flashes, threatening.
I lie on my back,
contained, out of control, contained.
I moan and mangle pilled bedsheets
that wrap-strangle my legs.
But kicking feels good, the thump and whomping.
I am always stirred by a naked woman
at my door. I will not let her in,
I want to.
She sits down on the carpet with her
warm back against the wall. Her shadow still,
outside the door.
I return to the opening and stare out at the distant, ashy horizon.
(I don’t really ever sleep, more like breathe deeply until the anxiety simmers.)
The lines are flat and motionless
but I feel the rumbling in my chest
like a growl. I will die alone, probably.
My visitor leaves without saying anything. Anything.
Just sits in his chair, then he’s gone.
When he leaves he leaves what looks like some
oily, important car part that fell off when it jumped a pothole.
I don’t ever touch it or move it.
If he wants it he’ll have to come and get it himself.
I want it.
I know it is for me.
But I don’t know anything.
I keep wondering about that naked woman.
*************************************
I break my plate on the floor, I spin
around, devlish, until I slip
on pieces. I sit on my bed,
I slam my back on the mattress, the sheets on
the floor. I kick the door hard until
the shadow moves,
slide down the wall and pull at my elbows,
looking at the ceiling, the ceiling, the wall.
I find that if I tilt my head back
and press my skull into my palms
it deadens something, my senses, and I can sleep.
Two times, and I don’t wake up on the third.
What would my mother think?
*************************************
My mother dreams that I will come visit
and bring her grandchildren.
I run in her backyard with the dog.
With the purpling sky, my wife and I
come in and pick up the littlest, all of us out of breath.
We pray and eat rice and shish-kabob on skewers.
There is so much laughter that it
takes us two hours to eat.
I dry the dishes she washes
and she cries a little because of the sadness
that is no longer around anywhere, just love.
The night bends down with board games
and movies, the screen door keeping out
mosquitoes, but letting coolness in.
At the end, in fresh sheets, everyone
beds and falls into deep, dreamless sleep.
Only breath and moonlight,
only breath and heat.