High Plateau

Coyote's laughter peals
through the night,
folding the darkness
into aural origami.

Lightning dawns on the horizon,
eyes drifted upward
breath in the glittering show.

Skeletal clouds
exhale smokey siblings,
lit by the kiss
of a waxing moon.

Labyrinth of Penumbra

Shadows and uncertainty,
mazes of the mind,
what meanings do they hold,
these worlds from inside?

Flashes bright and brilliant,
and achings of the heart,
these cobweb shrouded worlds
that haunt us from the start.

The labyrinth of penumbra
exists inside our souls,
to transport us to worlds
wrought with the unknown.

RoadShow

Oily black tar strips
like freeway tapeworms,
writhing beneath four rubber shoes -
my spinning feet.

Concrete dust rising
like volcanic ash,
backlit,
awash with violent electricity.
Stadium street lights
hacking iridescent phlegm,
rumbling up from the depths
of hulking generators.

Nocturnal trolls
in orange jumpers
busy themselves
with intestinal hoses
undulating from the backs
of iron lung tankers.

Craning to see more,
passing at sign sanctioned speeds,
a dream,
a movie I once saw,
a moment alone in time...

Santa Fe Fall

Cornflower wings flutter,
dancing upwards,
defining a double helix,
painting the cerulean sky.

The throaty voice of Raven
pulls my eyes from their place,
fixes and feeds them
on juniper and pine.

Somewhere in the distance
a woman walks her dogs,
her humming to the melody -
the jingle-jangle of dog collars -
as the sun slips silently
through the coyote fence,
painting warm bars on my arms.

Magic in the Mundane

Light fixtures with fingerprints
like moth dust on mirrored glass,
high above head.

Chair fabric tattooed in diagonal lines
by the pressure of a waiting room occupant.

Changing room door laminate
scored in a parabolic curve,
a dangling plastic tail
swinging on the end of a freshly inserted key...
...pay attention they scream!

Pay attention...

Intimacy

Complicated,
this puzzle of flesh,
this Rubik's cube of emotion -
an ever-altering riddle of expectations.

At once what was right
now becomes wrong,
and that once was wrong
evolves into right.

There must be a place
where desire is whole,
          where wants and needs
find a middle ground,
where the machinations of this beast
bear fruit both can stomach.

I could be anything
if I knew just what to be;
I could do anything
if I knew just what to do.

Yet as I pace this enigma
it stays one step ahead.
I chase and it runs,
never tiring of this race.
I stop and it waits,
lets me catch my breath...