The Subtle Bustle

I’ve been here for weeks, now: no wonder, no words, just no, no, no, and dust, and tiny worlds in grains I can’t apprehend, my eyes opaque, my ears stuffed, my nose crusted, my mouth swollen, my hands cracked.

The sun lashes me with my own expectations, and dreams, and hopes, while the quiet, cool palms have withdrawn behind the infinite line of invisibility, and the bright, giggling waters have fled to couple with their lover the sky.

There’s no difference, sitting or lying, so today one, tomorrow another, yet I grasp at the quivering straw of wandering myself out of this, my poet’s desert.

Aphrodite touched my hand, and now what?

dry and swollen, my tongue flails like a gasping fish and my lips, pale and puffy, wriggle like larvae in the beggar breath between my ears.

The thing inside wants to be apprehended, like a crook who sets himself up, hands red, nails dirty, grin twisting, eyes rolling;

but the whole plan was secret, and the cops didn’t show until the spots were cocked and aimed, the curtains lifted.

There’s no overture for this act, and the program was dissolved inside the amniotic sac and floats inside the veins;

but blood is thicker through rose-coloured glasses, and even so, water was always thinner.

My ordinary extraordinary, my universal unique: unlabelled lip balm, starred cell phone screen, fugitive keys and chained, books in rows and piles, fat dictionary of forgotten words, the names of dogs and long dead fish, children tall on shoulders, lover's tender hand in mine,

You whipped and snarled when I said I wanted you; caught in eddies and ripples and folds of time and choice: unable and unwilling, willing yet unable.

Two coconut cookies, twenty minutes to midnight, one thought wanders in: no one will know — not even you — if I sleep without brushing my teeth.

These days, magic is spelled T-E-C- H-N-O-L-O-G- Y; but Juliet was right: you bundle your words in an invisible zap, and still, they smell as sweet.

Sometimes, my mouth is filled with startles and steepings of new savours, and I am fortunate enough to soak in them and settle.

dime slime brine sign sane gain tame flame gang pang lung bung bug fug tongue rung dang bang same game main lane shine fine sublime crime

I fumbled my poems and they fell between the bars of the rainwater drain, so instead, I wrote this; meaningful, profound, clever, and light, poetry, but not.

bland eccentric pathetic immune capricious delectable stable tendentious manual narcotic belittle speedometer castration expulsion pernicious mammalian dependent satirical candour fellatio harangue gestation surpassingly blueberry ephemeral throughout galactic destroyer perversion entertainment radial perfection wheedling beggarly aphrodisiac martial compendium substantial barbaric insidious flocculant mendacious corpulent ecliptic randy speculation thermometer rhyme

An angel took me by the eyes but held on only for an hour;

like the devil, you've got my soul tucked behind your ear.

I forgot to count the push-ups, and now my biceps feel like orange Tang.

I spend my day anticipating all the things I'm going to say to you.

Then you open your mouth and each syllable washes them all away.

Dormi, seu cobertor perto do peito, mas o calor era todo meu.

In the bathroom, spitting blood and phlegm and toothpaste foam —

alone, I look closely, put my finger in it —

above the door, a spider, waiting to see what’s next.

Dinner, a movie, a quiet hour with a book — still the crickets call.