unfinished

waiting

for the car to stop

the prince to come

a birth

a death

the day to end

the papers in

dreading

the confession

the cost

feeling lost

loose ends

never woven in

never tacking down the threads

only dirtying more party plates

and untucking sheets

once done

yet begun

unfinished

and tired

of to do

no words

when it rains
it sleets
and snows
and spews down shit
to hit the fans
and whirl the chunks overhead
in slow motion
that we might marvel
at their velocity
before they splatter
in putrescence
upon our heads
and weary weighted shoulders
and blossom like a cancer in our
broken hearts
and crust up like a raisin
in the sun
that dove through the darkness
and remembered only love
when there were
no words
for the pain

Pieces of View

you tell me it is beautiful

but i can’t see.

it’s abstract art,

greek to me.

when i used to perceive

did it make me more free?

having less than

two lenses?

panoramic

telephoto

rose-colored

darkly (as in a glass)

all now out of focus

trapped in the bifocal line

a papered fly

an ambered mosquito

dizzy and disoriented

frozen in fuzziness

i need a new prescription

glasses, once hurled, hit the wall

and frustrated, fracture

. . . shatter . . . and scatter . . .

i’ve left the pieces on the floor.

tin (wo)man

clicking at a clip

like high heels

strutting to stay up

stopping might make teeter

the uncertain heart

open-whoosh-close-whoosh-open-whoosh

hear the blood

check the pulse

touch the tempo

a persistent whisper:

click-clack-whoosh-whoosh-open-close

oh

no

it’s synapses, not ventricles

that slow

no!

Oh,

thoughts swirling

sluggishly

drowsily

like blood in milk

curling,

winding,

halting—

hiccup! hiccup!

taste the tang

diffusing

patiently

like blood in mouth

tinny, untamed

taking back the brain

"And Often Is His Gold Complexion Dimmed" (william shakespeare)

Worshipped, a god:

Source of warmth, growth, and sight

Symbol of life; Life:

O, holy pun—the Glory of the Son

Else burn and blister and smite

Or wither and languish and die

—Make SAD

Scrawled on the prescription pad:

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Lack of Vitamin D

Added to the list

Of why none us is happy

It came out today from the cloudy melee

Of our gloomy state’s sky in winter

Can we soak in enough

For the sake of our health,

Wealth, and happiness?

Or to fire our sins

Of gloominess within

And place on a cross

The hope-loss,

Burn it down

And till

A new season?

Snow Sabbath

On that day

the Midwest was a formless void
and whiteness covered the face of the earth
while a wind from God swept over the face of the lake
For God had said
"Let there be snow";
and there was snow.
And the people saw that the snow was good
For the snow separated the people from
their schools and their workplaces
and their usual rat race routines;
So the people blessed the snow day
and hallowed it;
On it they rested from the work
they would have done
And Yielded their Wills
to the Weather:
Amen

Greek Mythology, Shakespeare . . . and Bruno Mars

"so much of what i see reminds me of something i read in a book" (or in this particular quote's case - a movie), so it's not surprising that the songs i've been enjoying from bruno mars remind me of . . . william shakespeare and classical mythology.

random literary association #1: bright eyes

"Oh, her eyes, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shining." - "Just the Way You Are"

"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return." - Romeo & Juliet
(not to mention "She doth teach the torches to burn bright")


random literary association #2: rock vs. rock

Sisyphus eternally pushes a rock up a hill in Classical Mythology as punishment for his hubris.

Bruno Mars eternally pulls a piano around a city, to accompany lyrics about his willingness to suffer for someone else. While the self-centered ancient may have to push a rock, the self-sacrificing singer actually rocks.