stem (2007)

a watched rain never falls. alone in our many rooms craving left-aloneness.

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stem overgrown with thought. seated in lotus position.

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we map disappearances. small birds wrapped daily. cannot drink the river.

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rowing three hours each way between us. to arrive at degrees of fidelity. granting the eye permission to lick.

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think we’re coping better with crop failures. though there are times we want to murder the fruit. unpeel what is peeled. how we never know how to hold what's dying.

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in spite of our ghosts, go scuttling in party shoes. go scuttling, eyes wrapped in sheets. ditching dharma, ditching precepts.

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our housedust. a lint magnet. stem the breath with fluff. dustmites fed on skinflakes.

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if the rain would pile upon itself. if the harvest. bring breath to what is said.

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lotus position. the spine a stem.

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to err. still planting the heart. craving left-aloneness. listening for dry echo.

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i say tremble then. break with the room. strew dust. be spilt.

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you say stay faithful. wear blue on blue days.