Beloved,
In what other lives or lands
Have I known your lips
Your Hands
Your Laughter brave

Give me your hand
Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since depart
Marked the mastodon,
The dinosaur, who left dried token
Of their sojourn here

FOR DAVID P—B
The eye follows, the land
Slips upward, creases down, forms
The gentle buttocks of a young
Giant. In the nestle,

My man is Black Golden Amber Cha
Warm mouths of Brandy Fine
Cautious sunlight on a patterned r
Coughing laughter, rocked on a whi
Graceful turns on woolen stilts S

You drink a bitter draught.
I sip the tears your eyes fight to
A cup of lees, of henbane steeped
Your breast is hot,
Your anger black and cold,

Curtains forcing their will
against the wind,
children sleep,
exchanging dreams with
seraphim. The city

When love is a shimmering curtain
Before a door of chance
That leads to a world in question
Wherein the macabrous dance
Of bones that rattle in silence

He bad
O he bad
He make a honky
poot. Make it honky’s
blue eyes squint

I’ve got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry