we could smell the faeries' footprints
throughout the dew-drenched twilight air
though balance was difficult, if you stood still
bold ones would alight on your hair

and i haven't been so lucky
they don't seem to come around here
cuz imagination's long-lost creation
isn't compatible with fear

lovers who burn and
lovers who dream
are lovers who share
...

though my heart breaks
for the same things as yours
will the ember be still burning
if i can't see what it burns for

if dreams are the language of the soul
and it's my heart that translates
if i come to, and just be, on the mountain,
it may be that which decides my fate

rough drafts

change your name

yeah, we get along.
but what was that other thing
that plato said?
the greater good?
is there a greater good
is there
something more that
one could hope for another
than
what i hope for you?
and i'm pretty sure
your mom approves
but i wonder,
still i wonder
would you
change your name
for me?

i feel safer when i'm
with you like
all my fears or
inconsistencies or
insecurities or
inane
unfounded
rants of
self-important
idealism
are
somehow
OK
and for you i hope
i do the same
but i wonder,
still i wonder
would you
change your name
for me?

would you sacrifice that
bubbling, timid,
robin's egg,
or is it navy, or
sky, since,
i've heard that's
from where it gets
that brilliant aspect-
blue,
would you sacrifice
the slow-moving beauty,
the gurgling,
forest-dwelling,
that same-syllablled, but
infinitely more principled,
meaning-filled,
altogether you-defining,
surname, bestowed with
infinite love
from those who begat you?
would you
change your name
for me?

and i'm not really asking,
i'm much more romantic than that.
i'm solely musing,
confident that
i could do much,
much, much
worse;
that if there were anyone
less deserving,
i wouldn't know where or how to find them,
that i've no
trepidation about one day
deigning to ask the question.
just musing,
contemplating,
wondering not
whether you'd like to
hang out
again,
or forever, but simply
whether you'd ever
find me worthy,
whether you'd be willing
to lose the self that
you'd been for
twenty-odd-years,
whether you'd
be willing to
quite literally
change
as a result of knowing me?
would you,
i wonder,
yet, i wonder
would you change
your name
for me?


an autumn walk in boston

i've never been, but
i dream; i insist:
"heart, take heart.
only sit tight two,
or twelve years' time."
i lay silent, sedate, snug-
asleep-
and walk.
along a woody,
leaf-strewn footpath,
fireworks above-
mother's, mind you-
and gently
hold
your
hand
ambling slowly,
always,
so slowly,
with
limitless leisure,
because with
her cheerfully alacritous,
annual,
not aural-
and yet musical-
accompaniment-
and yours-
i'm
just
happy.

and happiness
like gold, is fleeting-
and its warmth
is
golden,
delicious,
a sour, succulent orange,
a bright candy red,
or a brilliant green
but whichever way, won't stay for long
especially in boston.

or at least
that's what i dream-
i've never been.

there's something that's inside us
and it's killed my sense of wonder
made me feel as though i've failed tonight
even when i thought i'd found the light

i see the full force of my hypocrisy
and yet i've still no remorse
forgivess flows as from a fount
from the depths of the well i'll haunt

audrey II

there is so much more to life
than who is sleepin' by your side
there is so much more to know
than those tears you shed at night

why can't you see
can't you see
how beautiful you are
to Him and to me

and i know you know just how
poor those boys, they're treatin' you
from a fit of rage, then it comes late
you sink down to the deepest blue

why can't you see
can't you see
how beautiful you are
to Him and to me

and i know that your fighting with your past
and i know that you think that love can't last
but i also know there's one thing
that's never let me down
and it's the man wearing your thorns as His crown

so why can't you see
can't you see
how beautiful you are
to Him and to me

because if you could see
the way we see
you'd know how beautiful you are
and you'd be free
©

i stood up to write a poem about
this shit i heard the other day
but my heart became so heavy
i fell back, i couldn't find the words to say

bin laden had nothing to do with 9/11
or so says the CIA

so go ahead and look it up and tell me
just what we're supposed to do when
we can't trust the people we give power
the people we didn't really even choose

and if we can't trust them about that
can we trust them about this
when they tell us we need a new
flatscreen or fake tits
when they tell you that you ugly
inadequate or gay shit.

tell me why it's unamerican to want to
stop bein' a whore
cuz when you buy into this shit it looks
like you're selling something more

but wait-i love this country, i do. at least
i keep being told that.

i just wonder what's the price of freedom
that makes 'em hate us if that makes sense
how much do we really need 'em?

this shit we ingest daily
while we feed into the machine
that villainizes everyone that don't believe them
when they tell us what we need

yeah i'd like a new fucking ipod and i'd like
to eat some fucking meat
but compassion takes some sacrifice or
it ain't compassion. can't you see
that it takes nothing of yourself
to give what you just fuckin' got for free

freely you received, and freely give
what do you have that you've really earned?
work twelve hours, six, or none
doesn't change what you deserve
maybe if you were born down the fucking street
then you wouldn't have the nerve

to tell jesus that you're poor
that you can't spare a dollar today
that you have to buy it cheap because
ethics sure as hell don't pay
can i really say i'm poor when
my silver spoon it gets a chip?
and i'm not sayin give away your shit
oh wait that is what i'm tryin to say
jesus told you to fuckin' do it.
what's the delay?

do you think jesus would own an ipod
or go to war or vote for bush
would he wear clothes that're made by slaves
and i wonder would he push

a man he knows and loves and died for
into a lake of smoldering fire
i don't know or i wouldn't ask but
that's not the god for whom i perspire cuz

i'm workin out here trying to live this life
and it's work to not believe what you've been told
i don't believe that it takes money or status
or a woman or religion or hatred or judgement
to reach the fuckin' goal

cuz i'm content now with just
the beauty of the trees
and in our heartbeats and our souls
and sharing something real something
that you can't see on TV

it's love man. and that's the price
it's what it takes to do what's right
and you'll never find it on sale at kmart
sittin under the blue light

because there's nothing else so sacred
over which more righteous battles have been fought
so if you want to do anything that you think that jesus did
it's going to take some time, some money, some sacrifice,
if you want to do what's right it ain't gonna be easy
or convenient. it's gonna take all that you got.