April Poetry

Legacy 

Eternity ceased with the emergence of life—

Death ran hard upon

 

The ticking telomeres of our chromosomes

The Fates snipping their threads

Inside every cell, shearing off time

 

The half-lives of atoms

Counting down to the ultimate stability

Of the flat, heatless stage

 

The stars in our nuclei

Conspire to catalyze our existence

Snowflakes that melt despite their beauty

 

But naught is beautiful

if not it melts

______________

 

Auteur

For Ingmar and Denis

Les mains, you say, do not lie

They are so often touching earth

Stained with blood

Spread on a screen

Caressing

Burning

Reaching

what are you hiding under your hand?

Proof to us that the dream exists

That the dreamer is doing a little dance behind the camera

That the chariot is pulled by your demons

And when the element sparks 

Projecting

Touching

Revealing

you have everything but you lack

you smell of sleep and tears

Mon cher rêveur, I say, take a nap

_______________

Elements

Jet fighters above

The air and the young woman

Both pregnant with fear

 

The baby purloined

As the orange sun burns

Blood and tears bind them

She crosses a bridge

The rumble of tanks and fate

Shake the very earth

Out of the water

She spots the secret tattoo

One and one make one