We have plenty of matches in our house
We keep them on hand always
Currently our favorite brand is Ohio Blue Tip
though we used to prefer Diamond brand
That was before we discovered Ohio Blue Tip matches
They are excellently packaged, sturdy
little boxes with dark and light blue and white labels
with words lettered in the shape of a megaphone
as if to say even louder to the world
"Here is the most beautiful match in the world,
its one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem capped
by a grainy dark purple head, so sober and furious
and stubbornly ready to burst into flame
lighting , perhaps, the cigarette of the woman you love,
for the first time, and it was never really the same after that
All this will we give you."
That is what you gave me, I
become the cigarette and you the match , or I
the match and you the cigarette, blazing
with kisses that smoulder toward heaven.
Poem
I'm in the house.
It's nice out: warm
sun on cold snow.
First day of spring
or last of winter.
My legs run up
the stairs and out
the door, my top
half here writing.
Glow
When i wake up earlier than you and you
are turned to face me, face
on the pillow and hair spread around,
I take a chance and stare at you,
amazed in love and afraid
that you might open your eyes and have
the daylights scared out of you.
But maybe with the daylights gone
you'd see how much my chest and head
implode for you, their voices trapped
inside like unborn children fearing
they will never see the light of day.
The opening in the wall now dimly glows
its rainy blue and gray. I tie my shoes
and go downstairs to put the coffee on.
The Run
I go through
trillions of molecules
that move aside
to make way for me
while on both sides
trillions more
stay where they are.
The windshield wiper blade starts to squeak.
The rain has stopped.
I stop.
On the corner
a boy
in a yellow raincoat
holding his mother;s hand.
Pumpkin
My little pumpkin,
I like to think about other girls sometimes,
but the truth is
if you ever left me
I'd tear my heart out
and never put it back.
There'll never be anyone like you.
How embarrassing.
The Line
There's an old song
my grandfather used to sing
that has the question,
"Or would you rather be a fish?"
In the same song
is the same question
but with a mule and a pig,
but the one I hear sometimes
in my head is the fish one.
Just that one line
Would you rather be a fish?
As if the rest of the song
didn't have to be there.
repair
Another One
When you're a child you learn there are three dimensions
Height, width and depth
Like a shoebox
Then later you hear there's a fourth dimension
Time
Hmm
Then some say there can be five, six, seven…I knock off work
Have a beer at the bar
I look down at the glass and feel glad
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