Friday, May 29, 2009

time and words i leave behind

an excellent idea.



i don't remember words or when they came to me
I know the smell of a library and the touch of paper

i remember a blob on my algebra folder
this was before the Cistercians in a folded corner
it was just a spill that looked like a soldier in his great coat
words found me

now words are what i punch on a screen
instead of trying to prove to someone else that i know what the hell i am talking about
check that
yeah i got that paper to do on that too, meetings
still going before the committee of judges
instead of money or was it grades or was it time

i was a junkman selling your cars
washing your windows
and shining your stars Neil Young

when i said to the man from Saltillo
whose grandmother ate chicken feet that scared him
that the history of his country was like a big, loud fiesta
he knew i was right and he nodded
i remembered that it was all a tapestry
just a thread, a tiny braid in time
that tree is far older than I will ever be

if all i have left is the words that i leave behind
if all i have is the children that grow and know
then some part of me is still being ornery and hard headed
somewhere I am laughing

Saturday, May 23, 2009

What I know wouldn't fill a teaspoon.




Took one of those half-assed tests on facebook
cooked up by someone with far too much time on their hands
"What do you know about women?" Men only!
I got 100% and laughed at their conclusion.
What I know about women would not fill a teaspoon.

There is no bigger mystery in the world.
Unlocking the mechanisms of life
when i parted the womb and grasped at the air around me
what did i know?
can you tell me?
i still know the woman that bore me out of herself
the father that mated with the egg
and wove DNA in a hidden world

we are what we are
there is no
is
that is not me
those we have touched
what we shared in the moment of now
is was and will be
after we are gone
there is more of me than can go around
and i do not know how much i am
where i am and all that i shall be
is merely smoke and mirrors
shadows dancing upon cave walls

i was and there i will be again
i am and so shall i be





if i say
i understand the other sex
if i say
i know the woman
then i will surely lie
no matter how many of my kin
no matter how many dinners
they are there
and i am here

i do not know if we can ever know the other
the gleaming reflection of myself in another's eyes
it is enough to know for me that they are there
and that is good
or it is for me

i miss them when they are gone