Forced Evolution

The bus is late again
and sleep's been short

a tooth on the tongue
sharpened,

but hi, the weather x,
you say, and yes

to chocolate from
a stranger -

too sweet fluttering
the heart with its

refined sugar,

same how caught
on a train track

it raced and emptied
of self, knowing

how sleep snatches
in the long night

and never wakes,
but arrives

repeatedly into being
like every day since

as if an eddy on a wave
could change course.

So you let the bus
leave, made cold

and troubled

like a cobra poised
above its own center

on thresholds of violence
and mercy, and find instead

the warmth of a sunny rock

to count the petals
on clovers

in the weedy grass

could a crown of stems
beyond the ordinary
be made -

a root of self

tethered to its own
shaping - would this

woken dream, depart.

Misfit

The man wants you easy,

knocking on the wall
for permission

but lightly, not in need
with that spark –

an anger of too fast words
better held without panic

of long eyes and
their fragile warning,

just like the moon, head
held bowed to the sun

is the owed, owned light
from a distance

hunted on every horizon;
those, back turned and running

are a reflection of another
until quiet,

looking upon the face
of one who demanded
what they will not:

a monster, a victim –

and upon the wall slam
the crumbling heart

knocking loudly on the long night
with dreams made vivid

too struck of love,
indelible by necessity:

the own, owned warmth of self

who once gathering flowers
within a cage grew rich
with seeds

now slipping, or falling,
between every crack

having found no door
to ask entrance

grown uncontainable.

endurance

The tide will come in

but I - always - outrun
upon - jutting rocks

once - being a starfish
have held - air, face-down

procrastinated - tongue
folded - words and

right to live – tendered
to – the past

like a sunflower diverted
by the sun – so will I

inevitably - halting syllables
having no root – only

sound of a creature once caught

this hobbled back - sand
between teeth

now face up - the air full
lungs stretched - elastic

as the tide - could sing now
running mid the waves.