Is that a strand of gray you see?      What does the mirror say, if not that you are  not what you seem to be, not what      you think? You are vapor poured into a vase, delivered      in smoke and sharp angles, a wolf  in bear’s skin, howling and hairy      sharp-mouthed, tongue-tied to another face…

Dumpty sat for hours listening                                     to the whispers of swallows in a dingle dangle dusk.          The mist was thick, his thoughts inconsequential. He sorted the best in the palm of his hand,                    and slipped the rest into his waistcoat pocket. Nothing of the moon was Dumpty’s concern.  Yet, she, too, was no sloven,…

Within the outer darknessOf etherealized gold-stone,Orphic from crystalized music,Drifts & floats a LadyOf spectral mystery Weaving through opal-spiraledNebula clouds of dead star-dust—A glowing graveyard of once-Living star-decay—she drifts,Alone, self-reflecting eachVivid color as if made fromThe shards of witch-crystal For eternities the stars burnedWith the flames of living fire,Until they died…

The genie is leaking out of the jar . . .The entire shop is filled with a           bluegreen sense of expectancyThis is not like the times when he comes         whooshing out of the neck,                   to attain his fullblown transparent magnificence,                   his head resting against the pressed-tin ceiling                   (so that his turban takes on a knobbled look)                    and his feet…

The gush of my heartis a love songtirelessechoingin the shell of my own ear            the cavity of my chest Quiet trickle of a background hum orfull throatedso powerful she takes out a damRiverfloodShe never stops singing She saysForgive yourselffor the times you             couldn’t hear me             thought love was a zero-sum game and             abandoned yourself…

On the glass mountain there is one immutable lawTake one step forward, slide two back, down the slick wallPrince and knight and rogue, they have tried it allOne step forward, slide two back, boot or foot or claw. The man shivering, trapped halfway up the crystal slopeKnew the woman on…

If someday is today, periwinkle cloudswill bow at my feet, you’ll put the moonyou promised to deliver on my doorstep. We’ll tie the rope we made round rebel bodies to keep them chaste, break through rows & rows of witnesses, a rite of passage, bite into sponge cake adorned in white lace.…