Eight Minutes and Forty Six Seconds on June Twelfth, Two Thousand Twenty
The rain continues. No thunder dares ring. No winds howl. All is silence, save the sound Of distant trucks down on the interstate. I tell myself, pretend it is the sea That all this rain, perhaps, will wash into. And I remain in silence. What must...
Account of Presumed Ecstatic Experience during Initiation Rite in Unidentified Mystery Religion
It doesn't really matter how I died. Whether of time or tide or tiredness, But after this, the journey of my life I woke, to find myself in a dark wood. The way was lost, the night was long, and I Was more alone than I had ever been. It...
Ragnarok - VI
"In coolness of that evening we stood guard Atop the knoll our mastery had turned To barrow. As the hidden sun went down We watched the pit as does a mongoose, for The snout of the great serpent to appear. While there we watched we argued: How to...
Obituary Instructions
Do not call me an angel, when I'm gone. Mourn me, revere me--or not, as you choose-- But as the human person that I was. An angel is a pure celestial thing Too absolute and too ethereal For earthly things like woe or weariness, For home and...
The Heart Lies Only Once
I trust no more a promise made of words. Not for the many vows long-proven false, Not for the monkey's paw, its fingers crossed, Not for the apathies of old lang syne. There's not a one of us has had no need Of some dishonesties, just to...
A Far Green Country
How often have I dreamed of such a place? How often have I seen those emerald fields, And in that dream, forgotten that I dreamed, That I would wake, had woken, and my life Dissolved into a peaceful deja vu That cannot be remembered? I can...
Autoimmune Scarring of the Myelin Sheath
The coming summer heat looks to be cruel As ever it has been. Grey autumn can Not easily come soon enough for me. And what an evil fate is ours, my love, That such embittered words should ring so true. That at the highest loft of light and...
Ragnarok - III
I learned much that i never thought to know: techniques of swordsmanship both long-forgot and new-devised, and archery (which i had never tried), and tracking in the wild, and how to read the verses in the wind, which led me to you in those pathless woods
Ragnarok - II
The sun was gone. The only light that shone Was a reflection off the fading sky, Yet faded not the gold out of the roof, For, at the touch of darkness, fireflies, Lit crisp like Christmas candles, Appeared and turned the leaves to paper...
I Switch Off All The Lights
I switch off all the lights. Those that I love Are all abed, both in the other room And all across the city that I love. I see my way across the meagre room And to the too-tall curtains by the light Of thrift-store stained-glass lamp, by oven...
Ragnarok - XXVII
Somewhere it was autumn. On the shore Wind-kissed and smelling of soft salt there stood But three alone. The sighing pines atop The dunes were the last trees to wear their leaves. Somewhere it was evening. Heavy clouds Were crimson painted...
Ragnarok - V
"Before the sun had crossed the pinnacle Of hours upon the sky's superior side And any nightward momentum had gained, The hall was emptying. The Old Man's words Reverberated still between hard stone Reproachful more the longer that we stayed. Our...