October

Salmon belly sky

sea
grey as heron’s feathers
smooth as asphalt,
kind of

Sushi chef
with a small knife
splitting cucumbers

chop chop chop

Wind’s been wearing red lipstick again
kissing up on all the trees
sloppy kisser wind

Rose hips from the bushes
“Kiss me, too!”

San Juans
like a fleet of old dreadnoughts docked
Sailors all gone home to their sweethearts
Museums. Open to the public now

Air is calm
maybe the Dali Lama just got finished speaking here

All things, reflecting on the nature of their beings

cessation

even the squabbling amongst the gulls
even the agony lit within the stones

Something’s on the landscape’s mind

amber glow from behind a paper lamp
old man in his chair drifting off to sleep

does he wake?

Trail agrees to keep my footsteps secret
as it does for deer, coyote, the hour of 4am,
rising full moons,
an empty pair of wandering eyes

 

City Walk

I like to walk the city
before dawn

I like it when I have its full attention
and I can feel it watching me
like an eye

I like how the darkness calms things

How the houses seem more relaxed
when they don’t have to tell you
what color they are

I like it when the shrubs and trees
stand there like figures draped in cloaks

I like it how the street lamps stand nervously
knowing they are surrounded

I like the cats
who scurry out from underneath the cars
like they’ve just committed crimes

I like it when the morning
is just a thin white row of teeth
upon the jawbone hills

I like it how the city roars
like a distant surf

I like to think of all the bodies
around me sleeping

All the dreams floating about
in people’s heads

I like to think of dreams

I like to think that maybe they’ve been brought by fairies
who deposit them in our ears
through colored-plastic straws

That they’ve come a long way
from a distant land
some hidden kingdom
like Tibet

I like to think that dreams
are like the petals on a flower opening
except they’re always changing color
like prisms twirling in the light

And that while they twirl
they make an eerie song
like chimes

I like it how the lights come on
one by one

And the people start their coffeemakers
and have no recollection
of what just happened to them

And I return back to my home
as the whole world turns the dial up on itself
and fills with sound and light

And I remain silent
about everything it was I saw