His mind was on fire.

Fire was on his mind.

Create and destroy

As Shiva in the garden,

Eden and the snake.

The gates of heavens and hells

And worlds in between.

His world was on fire.

His mind fired the world.

It turned and evolved,

Epochs came and went.

Ice and forests and deserts.

He was on fire in my mind.

In my heart,

In my head.

And the silence erupted.

Our souls enveloped by it.

Earth scorched, cinders barren on the ground,

While the fire of his breath laid me to waste.

April 2008

I should have held you that day,

Your compelling mundanity

And outstandingly beautiful averageness holding my gaze.

But the forest of kelp in my head

Left me lying there, wondering why and how and when.

The unfettered blue dome above us

And the petroleum rainbows on the bitumen

Were witness to my doubt.

With barely a nod, and a shift of just one eyebrow

You acknowledge this failed experiment.

The mad man by the side of the highway tying his shoes.

A beach full of people, swept out to sea.

It defies explanation, this hesitation I offer.

I’ve slung reason from the gutter

And sit here now without you.

July 2008

I will be standing on a ladder and tugging at clouds,

For I don’t know where I left the truth.

You, me and Agamemnon,

Hell-bent and hell-for-leather through the skies.

I see who you are;

The pirate and cowboy and soldier.

And your cool and confidence.

But there’s an innocence in you.

I see who you might be;

The spaceman, the doll, the glider floating on high.

I’ve forgotten how to float,

And beneath the surface I’ve already drowned.

Yes, drown them in chocolate till you no longer hear the screams.

You, me and Icarus,

Falling upwards without stopping.

It ended in flame and it will end in flood, or just tears.

I’m not allowed to want you of course;

Your smile through the ether,

Sentence fragments, the flash of flesh.

And the vast sphere of night surrounds us.

July 2008