A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
–Diane Arbus

and what do i know

images of the world
the ground &the sea
insistence &the resistance
what do i know
my surveillance never sensed
the camera blow
wasn’t even looking no
was focused on the channel
that battery of waves
those lies lives the motion of water
the notion of furor &foam
dominating the beach
that perverse idol work
jetty mine make me a jetty
of equal force &dimension
stour 4space
you don’t say
then you are the prisoner confiding
your face is the only document i need
with that i can hammer down walls
&ceilings rip up carpets &tacks
knock open the sills
mywrists ache4 labor
&myseeing &knowing
&truth &all that means
what do i know
inscriptions of war
philosophies of peace
lights &tunnels
hey you safe seeing suburbia
hey you stencil-a-boat
come on onthespot come
here lies the race
at the beachbreak
for the first time
you respond to the camera
that crashing wave
savoring the unchanging quality of you
like the fabrication of field &house
atop an aircraft hangar
like seeing what isn’t there
&not seeing what is
the cameras do things
like drop bombs &fly
&measure &attach windshields
&pick up &count dots on a die
oh luck &all those people
saying things in seats around you
clearing their throats in growls
like the curl of a surf thudding
some unseen beach

you are a moth&more&more

in all those museums
those miles
those cafés
the reemerging form
i throw myself in
the alley
&then
spillout on a backstreet
the next weeka new work
offers proof
of sunlight &prose
but prose i cannot do
i know that breaks a rulei want too mucha consort
i cannot dew a dropa schaft a ship
the well i’m instop cranking li
someone someday
will raise youwolves
i want to be your friend&
play footsies& thenthis is not good breeding romulus
become
becoming is all i ask

acurious collaborative combining

words wanting sentences
fragments wanting wholes
possibilities wanting meaning
progress is rapine now
the cubes are putting themselves back together
the grass has picked itself up
&put bits on bits
to make a meadow
there’s an augmentation going on
so press me further
ohplease do
it’s strange how our people path
how they bind &cleave
vanish somewhere
try not to bbinary
better to be tri
try &beyond

(previously published on The Argotist Online)

sin the sea wall

his sin, she saw,
given to the sea wall.
he, hers, clasped and blessed,
clasped and blessed.
some such, the sea saw.

he, her spool,
found strongly tall.
she did, his awl,
to unrest, draw.

the nip of her chin
tucked in
and nuzzled
the small of his back, this small,
as a chill wind
bristled her,
bristled her shawl.

when the waves rocked
causing her shawl to free,
all she, saw he,
but thought
her sins yet small,
yet grabbed for,
clasped for, blessed be.

his craving eyes
drained
and filled
with a vision, this lovely,
as the sea spray
wetted him,
wetted his cloak.

when the wild waves knocked,
causing his cloak to part,
his awl, she saw,
but thought the point yet dull,
yet clasped for, grasped for, blessed be.
there, within view of the wall,
the seas do rise and fall
in some such sumptuous way.

(previously published in the Crab Creek Review)

cabinetmaker

i want to make something
as beautiful as the table you are carving
or are planning to carve
i want to smooth something over time
to break the edges into worn soft light-attracting curves
i want to make something lasting and
as i wonder what
i come upon the thought
of you working with something
nature has already made beautiful
and see how you are just altering
a preexisting beauty
if only conceptually for the moment
shifting its focus
and i wish to do more than that
i wish to create
not tailor beauty
not to rework nature seam by seam
but to make the world perceive
and as i wonder how
i see you stop what you are doing
which stops me doing what i am doing
because as you tilt your head
and as your beard catches light
your chin goes into shadow
and i realize what it is that made you
that it is beauty you are working with
and i want to do something beautiful