Life Goes In Circles

Hemingway

And I dance the same song
We dance with women we only half choose
We know them by their sparkling eyes
Hemingway is mostly dust and I am mostly water
I stand on the hotel ceiling
Cooled by ocean winds
That cannot master Cuban heat
I drink to a surrendered saint
10 The fool returns
There are few times when I doubt my foolishness
But sometimes even this axis of my life is questionable to me
More often that I realize it , I am sure
Tonight I will rest and think
Tonight I will ask questions
I am intimidated by that girl
I do not know what to do now
The question is one of formlessness
What do I want to engage?
Face my own arrogance in thinking I am right
I feel like a boy in short pants
I AM blessed to meet such a warrior woman
This one though…….What is she asking of me?
And what is it that I want?

11 HAIKUS

What reason begins
Emotion will put to bed
Sleeps until morning
If an honest man
Where then are my simple thoughts
Authenticity
A thousand loves dance
On the precipice of soul
Oozing emotion
Raging wood fire burns
So hot and bright that I may
Only dance ’round it

12 Relaxation

Hangman’s neck is stiff and tired
Just us work is never done
Go lounge atmosphere
To swallow shots of whisky
However, barely breathing, desperate
Spills shadows on the table
Din competes with three piece jazz
Piano stiletto notes rain like pennies
On wide stretched smiles
Plied by cigar tainted eyes
Red lines throb maniacally
Eyes forcing menacing hands of greased air
Along inner thighs
Lying, laughing shrilly
A toot ; trumpet screams
Seduction ; piano laughs
Eruption of calamity
Vanity insanity
Collusion

13 Importation

Cave a jolly lot
A lot, a hinder
Winded to retire in a cave
And adjusted eyes to broaden winding
Efforts of wind spin relentless
Banners effortless vision heat rolling
Extolling in most baritone voice
Moist announcement of fatigue
Kneading beliefs to reap rewards
Of faltering assassination
Deny retire, desire all your dreams
Scream if you fail
Never surrender
Impale doubt
Shout devout endeavor
I’ll live forever
Ride out the weather
Casual handshake subterfuge
You repeat “dinner is served”
Mind dodges and denies your petty shuffle act
I intercept your eyes unafraid
You unfocused eyes scan me without seeing
My adoring smile hidden beneath my lips

14 Salutation

Hailed
On a descending orbit
The ability to float above
Denied
By nature and rebellion
Deterioration a date with destiny
A promise we sign as sleepers
To meek to reneg upon awakening
Coerced on a mountain of connections
Pulled tight
The corset of relations
Chokes the air out of my lungs
In a hug; a fatal embrace
Draws me in to
Swallow, swallow, swallow
The vile exhaust
Of machinery of fear

15 Halitosis

Off switched in your presence
Voided to each word
You leak like rotten melon
Your gaping putrification face
Yaw hangs agape
Flaps in the foul wind of your opinion
Obtusely you refuse
To examine the truth of your words
Having swallowed too much refuse in youth
And unwilling to exact
The price of subtraction
On your systems
Might just be rejuvinated
You just don’t move
You need improvement
But you
Babble excuses
That float by me
On clouds a-black
And my patience is a flower
That withers in your company

16 Via Bacia Donnas

The way of kissing ladies
Begin with the very first smile
Capture it and tease it into the shape of a rose
Plant it into your desires
Nurture it by showing it always the light of day
Water it when the sun is down and
Drink in its beauty
In every moment of waiting
Let the bright touch of those lips
Engage you a thousand times
Before closing your mouth to hers;
Wait until the moon is full
Allow moonlight to cast a shadow
On the memory of your love
If she casts no shadow, do not kiss that
For there is no substance in that love
Listen to the sounds
The subtle language of sounds
Of your breathing in time with hers
And the words “I adore” to fill you mind
Then kiss
Then you will have kissed

17 Cabron

Am I to stay up all night
Suffocating on the joy
Of cool clean air
And life beneath a thousand pointed stars
Inflating my heart to absurd proportions
Am I to scar my ass
On this riveted bench
While waiting for her to come home
Smile at me, while my smile remains locked away and secure
Unable to harm a flea
Am I to sit on the outside
Of this circle and peer in
Looking for the chance to show her my polished hope?
- I think I would rather prove my independence with
A kiss goodbye
But instead I’ll insist I’m just taking in the sky
The smell of raw gasoline on the streets stinks
And compliments my lie

18 Shadow

I sat beneath myself tonight
Allowed my heel to kick myself
A man of little means or sense
And witness my own emptiness
I lost my laurels on the town
In that spot where I tried to tear myself down
In the shadows of great Marti and Che
I mocked my greatness easily
But let it go
Finally wont you Sirrah! Boy!
Thou art such large dice
I regret to throw myself around so
So much riding
And I’m loaded to lose
Cause I’m ashamed, its true
Of those wants, my legacy, my birthright
The passport strapped to my leg
To protect my privilege

19 At present

I chew on broken bread
Saliva softening bites
And chewing it gets mashed apart
I swallow soft as sticky lumps
Tongue searches palate to
Sweep up lingering bits and swallow
Them down with civilized decorum
As not to have a spotty smile
And while I eat this simple meal
Pre-catalytic cars roar by
An old man sits collecting yawns
In the dimly lit Havana night
The city rolls its eyes at my soft and dirty verse
I surrender my head in
An overcoming nod
It does not rise until
The moment is over

20 Bencha

The bench that I sit on just told me
That I have to stay the night
She says she’s lonely too and she wants me to stay the night
They come and go all day but they never ask her name
She wants to think I’m different
But I know we’re all the same
And if you want to blame someone
Kill your car; divorce your TV
The park bench has my sympathy
You know she’s not the one to blame
Sitting here I get so low, so low  in the chair
I’m gonna fall onto the earth
If I wake up clothed in dirt
Maybe it’ll be different
You’ll have to notice me first
But you wont flirt with an earthworm
And I wont risk a flirt
With someone who just passed me by
Only noticed me when I was hurt

FAMILY

Its time to give something back to my family
Express the sincere appreciation that I hold
Too long have I been cheap
Keeping to myself even, hidden, these thoughts
The many scenes that needed to unfold: are done
The resolution and independance to finally say
How after honoring you
I’ve come to love and like you as people
As people with quality and sanctity
And our bond of affection
Is the strongest I’ve known
I love you according to my bond
As the saying goes
No more, no less
I will always love you both
Its time you both were shown

___________________

ARGUMENT

A head of dreads thrashing
Full of wild conspiracies
A mouth that eructs such scat!
Just gratification for the ego
And all that hair

I wonder…
Heavily armored people
Invested in their views and purposes
Needed explanations are seeded
Arrogance as baobab

Handcuffed by a birthright
So that losing’s the only way to get free
And to get free of loosing?
Trust in manifest destiny
Time to wait and see

When is it incumbent upon me to speak?
IF I may move as She moves
Moments of grassfire
Metamorphosize the face of today
The fluxing and fix’d savannah

Her justice is her own
Her finger always felt
Before I move my tongue
Nix those trends we believe extend
Resist stasis
I’m the fresh water stream at ocean’s lip

Hide and seeking
Twinning and entwining
But Gaia’s justice is her own
Simply unknown
The clashing of ants: redundant

____________________

FLOWER

If a flower were made
In essence not of earth
But of words which portrayed
That life which nature birthed
What would those words be
And how would they sound
To capture what we see
In nature so profound

____________________

ACHES & CHANGES

Can I admit that I miss YOU
And not have everything change?
The fragile thread and needle that weaves lives together
And we that precious thread
Can we withstand the sharp pull
That would be the knitting of our lives together
Did it happen one night as we slept?
I think I might say: already yes.
If I was to tell you over the telephone
A subdued and subtle version of the truth
Just that I’d been thinking of you
Thinking about you; and how’s your family?
Would I auto-asphyxiate when you say
“Oh they’re great” and let it pass?
Hung out to dry by my own hand
In arid isolation.
Then if I was to write you an email
That can be brought to testify
Have I captured and committed to form
That young sapling of US
Cut it down and carved it into a bow
To send the arrow of my loneliness sailing into you mind
Then can it grow at all anymore?
And if I just say it
Say hey I missed you
Is that OK?
What else am I saying?
What else am I trying to say?
Such heavy words
I don’t want to weigh you down
But I need to get them off my mind
Dragging my chin on the ground
Thinking of all that might.
Missing you is a tribute to that conversation over spaghetti
The night in Toreno and
Your coca-cola can mattress, unworthy without you.
Maybe I prefer the buoyancy of the past
When I came floating along
And we ate cheesecake irreverently
At that time we were only shadows to each other
Shapes of graceful animals romping in an impermanent galvanized Shangri-la
Now I find I miss you
Moments of you come back like an explosion echoing
I am impressed with waves of force from you
If one look of love would ensorcell me as Medusa can
I can’t tell
I am a fire spirit
I love the wind too well
But if we agree to put our hands in the dirt
Perhaps we can grow together; separately
It’s best to plan your steps- when walking fertile fields
Something will come; inevitably, we have velocity with us
Or like a boomerang, our inertia can return us from where we came
And only our eyes would be anything new
But a roundtrip doesn’t appeal to me
I revere, adore and am not afraid of you.

____________________

BEGIN

Eyes Akimbo
Bears my depth
Simple words
Unsearchable sands
Buried treasure
Unassailable El Capitan
Eyes unfocused
Relaxed Mind
Grappling hook
To higher lines
Profound puddles
Mighty splash
Eyes unbound
Depth unfound
Unexpected romance
Unexpected evi-dance
The whole world
In a grain of sand
Sense abandoned
Mind relaxed
Eyes the mirror
Mirror the window
Eyes akimbo