neoteny in fragments
1
touch her violet skin as she dances in the clouds
and all the world will shatter--
your breath ripped from your shell,
why do you look so surprised?
2
she writes me a letter long and still.
her hands are oranges.
her tongue is chains.
i tell her to remember to breathe.
3
she finds me but i will not answer.
a crumpled paper cross in her hand.
i will eat Plato and paint fingers.
the child is god.
4
once when i was a child, i feared nothing.
now that i have grown,
fierce tremblings at a whispering breeze.
and shrieks at a silent dream.
5
she tells me she loves me.
her tongue stumbles carelessly
in her frantic attempt at reconciliation
with change.
my feet lie bleeding,
crunching the ceramic fragments of her skin
she left behind.
6
you were right.
i have taken other lovers.
when the sun asked me to dance
in the orange belly of tomorrow,
i said yes.
7
sun snickering in the morning.
we hope to find time slain in the corner.
avocado omelets paint our smiles fleeting.
8
peter pan is an angel and no robin Williams.
the police come to my door looking.
i tell them nothing.
tonight we go dancing with fairie dust and infant smiles.
9
if only Han shan was with us in more than spirit.
he always got drunk with bears and slept in the fields.
i think his daughter watches now.
silvery orb of night above Cold Mountain.
