~secondhand
i.
once we were a melody
a slow string of harmonic words
abundant sentences
like flowers in spring
our syllables moved wind
to wheat
ii.
mathematically, forgiveness is
a top-heavy relationship
fraction
and in the sum of reduction
one becomes whole
while the other, a remainder
iii.
I have assumed the shape of water
of air
in a cloud
or a balloon
I must be poetry
I am fluid
the slow blue leak of
sky or sea or hope
I believe it's a sign
maybe a malignancy
a cancer
iv.
heavy is this lifetime that
rains snow
each day colder than the last
but predictable
the way it falls with certainty
and purpose
and I feel compelled
to cut up the whiteness
like cocaine
and fill sinuses with misery
or all the color of pocket-stains
v.
and then
yellow streamed through my window
slanted, sideways
but I am disabled
numb and broken-winged
before the open sun
lah 6.15.12 ©®