Waving from a Train Bound for Aveiro

It's little things,

Standing still,

Eyes closed,

Looking up,

Inhaling the rest of it,

That keep the priorities straight.

It's big things,

Midnights making schematics,

Losing speaking terms,

Taking sides,

Generation gaps,

That strengthen the heart.

It's beautiful things,

Dinners,

Holding hands,

First days,

First dates,

That keep the pages turning.

It's rare things,

Revelations,

Being smitten,

Laughing where you can't breathe,

Finding your centre,

That keep us young.

It's you,

It's you,

It's you

Minefields

Down the hall,

Our young bare feet scamper,

Lightly on the carpet on the wood,

Wondering what's supposed to happen,

Turning corners going straight,

Tangling up teens and twenties,

And sequences,

Doors serve to man a watch,

As our young bare feet scamper,

Up onto down on cotton on springs,

To finish books that have been bugging us,

For weeks now.

There's Going to Be a Lot of "I Told You So"

It will be big,

It will be massive,

It will blow every one of our minds,

It will be like a parade, but on steroids!

And everyone will know everyone there.

It will be full of motion, like dancing,

It will be one giant overdue airport reunion!

I honestly cannot wait,

To see every one of your beautiful faces there.

1953

Pretty, Caroline watched the flower basket twirl,

Canterbury bells peeking over like baby birds,

The houseboat was just right, she thought,

Maine was just right,

Ike was just right,

As if from some mental connection,

Which she secretly believed in and he secretly believed in,

But neither would mention it to the other,

For 52 years, which might as well have been forever,

He appeared behind her,

And the Canterbury bells spun,

And he touched her just right,

And that's how I was put here on this busy planet.

Who says there isn't a God!

Who could possibly be that blind?

Faintly, a piano

Whispered away while the children

Fought to keep their eyes open in their beds

How did that story end?

Well It Was Worth A Shot

A man, once,

No one remembers his name,

In the minutes before he died,

Thought up what, to him,

Seemed a very promising venture.

As he died,

As people were busy not knowing he was dying,

He queried his creator,

Who was busy creating other things,

Why he shouldn't perhaps live on?

The man had acquired a vast amount of knowledge,

More than anyone else on the planet,

And had contributed and advanced even more,

And would it not be a terrible crime,

To let such a prize dissolve right then and there?

His creator responded:

"But that's what's so impressive about death!

You live it all and then suddenly,

Wham! Zowwy! Poof!"

When Holy June Came

When holy June came,

We forgot what we had learned,

And stayed inside way too much.

Crowd Me

It all feels very,

[Hah. Feelings.]

Open, spacious, slow,

There's a perimeter and I don't know,

What could possibly be beyond it.

But it's flat where I am,

Yellow grass and moss,

And room for just one more person,

In all of this space,

We need so much more space than this life provides,

Room to thrash, ramble, pace, cartwheel,

Weep,

Leapfrog,

See how far we can spit.

It's incredible how much I want you here,

In this not big enough space with me.

Belgium

It would be a Thursday,

Because they're the best for surprises,

There would be pastries,

There would still be bits of flower on the counter,

I would make a drug reference,

You would put up with it,

My hands would rest lightly on your hips,

(The best part of the day)

I always think we fit perfectly,

One against the other,

There would be a window, curtains and a breeze,

There would be a park to get lost in,

There would be jobs patiently waiting for us on Monday,

And years to swallow us up,

And years and years.

The Other Side of the Coin

The jumpy eyes,

The searching, scattering, reassembling hands,

The mental fox hunt,

For hints of hope, what's more:

Happiness.

The things you don't see over the phone,

Desperate, determined, exhausted, and wanting,

Wantingwantingwanting,

To get it, to click, to see you smile,

Because of me again,

Fragile though it all may be.

I've lost the ability to say my chances, and I'm sure more than a few people are glad to see me finally on the receiving end of this thing.

Upon Observation

Differences:

Societies, languages, governments,

Governors, religions, rituals,

Skill sets, experiences, vacations.

Similarities:

You, Me.

The Autopsy

After they had made the proper incisions,

Inside they found no organs or vitals,

Save a note:

"I have no more use of it,

Adieu."

Sojourner

I have been out here for days,

In my head, searching, finding,

Excavating with all the blunt precision of an amateur,

Plumbing depths I cannot breathe in,

Dying, and seeing what I find there too.

River

When I am with you I am close to a river,

Deep and moving and only fools think controlled,

And I like nothing more than to sit at your banks,

And listen to all the life inside you.

Exuberance

Abounding, sounding and resounding!

I fly from here to there,

Though you think me forever in one place,

I am many and I am always,

And as such I shall be forgotten,

And as such I shall always love you!

In a Storm

In a storm with lightning all around,

There is no judgement,

There is no punishment and only the hope of reward,

[Is this life not enough?]

There is only you,

And others like you,

And what you carry and what they carry,

And the weapons you choose to make of them.

A(nother) Thought

Thumbing the entirety of pages,

After finishing a brick of a novel,

Sounds like applause to me.

Le Sigh

Sighs are the balloons we lose,

Or give away in parking lots,

In carnival crowds,

At foreign locations,

Drifting up, over, away,

Towards each other,

Containing whatever the air was meant to say.

Desire #5,832

I want to mark the seasons,

By the changing tones of your skin.

Waiting for a Show at Eleven

Maryn,

On the nape of my neck,

And I'm still thinking I'm thinking and thinking:

I should have gone out to that movie instead. 

Pine cones are just prime numbers.