Wednesday, November 24, 2004

kelli

in her eyes i can see the word girl glint off her
surfaces, although her mouth tongues boy
as she gives me that smile, knowing and
yet closed with visible longing for cessation
of deception, while father screams in the
living room not to be like 'those faggots.'
she winds the long hair up, watches the mirror parade
the whispers of dyke, and attempts to find a
male to take to prom to hide her dirty little
(girlfriend) secret.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

speak*

he reads the sports section
rustling the pages

her fixed gaze is lost on him.
the television is muted, the fan
creaks
as it revolves.

she gathers the words against
her teeth and they
clack
with anticipation
but her breath lets out in a rush and
the words
flee
before she can force them into sounds.

he turns the page and settles in
to read.




*B.A. senior thesis poem

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

stoned, in ethics class*

a myriad of stars in the diamond heavens
could not light my way well enough to

tap-
dance
through the moral tarpits and
trip-
falls
required of intellectuals
to theorize, and puzzle out
the reasons, altruisms, empathetic sighs

as our fingers are tested in the silt-filled babblings
of philosophers, clear springs water now full
of sediments, dirt and

original
guilt
from the newest opiate religions of the masses.

communion hands full of
spaces and
pauses

in the struggling of the mighty
i.q. of the highest persons scraping out
the theoretical impersonalities of universes
that could have been
if not for our
ability to feel,
and love,

and dream.



*also in my senior thesis. almost completely unedited from when i first wrote it, in ethics class; i only changed the title.

Monday, November 1, 2004

concrete jungle

i do not see what is in front of me.
birds call in the air and
the pages of my book are
ruffled by the chill of autumn air
but i am in another universe,
unseeing eyes staring.

i am imagining
the peace of forest, the harsh
loamy smell of leaves from seasons past,
watching squirrels and rabbits
the scent of pine and earth
and leaves crunching beneath me
when i shift my weight.

[never mind my concrete surroundings
the sounds of traffic
from the nearby highway]

in my world, trees rule the
earth and within their branches,
i am melding into bird calls
and rustling leaves, and the
gentle noise of forest creatures who
scamper and live under roots
and in burrows under logs.