two poems written during the winter

inspired by ursula k le guin, jackie wang, e e cummings, positive dialectics, student protesters, and skeptical faith

Trans-Actions of Care

You were cradling the wailing stone
as long as its pitch matched the din
of the pigeons flapping wings.
In the moment, where he startled them,
scattering grey in the cool sky
behind the draped figure gasping for air,
I heard the thud of the wailing stone
cracking the plaza with its heaving sigh
opening the fleshy earth to the prick of our spiked bodies
interlaced in dived diversions of the wailing stone’s churning path.

Did you know the wailing stone
cries softly in blues and yellows
the same that dot the rushing stream
where canaries carry tuna in their erect beak?

I could never hold the wailing stone
my hands crack under shrill asks
the prying of compassion slices through a cooled granite
fragments fall into the rushing concrete
a slimy joy found in shattered serenity.

Did you hear how they composed the wailing stone
of furtive glances, bit lips, and auburn eyelashes
the collapsing faces along the ridge of discontent
an impasse extending from gasps to grasped silence
in heavy words of the mason’s code.

I never heard what the wailing stone said
I only heard it scream.


untitled

In the broken voice
Squeaks through
A half-remembered vestige of prestige
Yearn for after-thoughts
That tumbled from Giants’ lips
Before landing in the reflective pool
Of scratched pages.

At the table
carvings and theses
strewn about on dinner plates
that clattered in tongues
I’d tried to nail down
In their squirming place.

Vanity’s auburn hair
The cracked skin of an unsure handshake
Arms and legs contort in fractal spiderwebs
Are you the seeker of an ambivalent gaze
Or the follower of a mismatched path?

Neglected pleasantries, distorted apologies
The clarity of smudged vision
Within the cracked wide-angle lens
How brave to not encase
This graveyard of cadmium and zinc
That shrinks the horizon
Into a bottomless tin

Oh vanity,
Discard me
From the divine asymmetry