Such sights you must
seclude from us

beyond majestic tapestries
enriched with myths

geometries
persistent fingers flick and fray
as hinting glimmers drift away

and light slips through
loose haggard threads

and questions dance
about our heads

and suppositions disappear
into black holes.

Theories veer
toward vague
equations
models

guess

so no one shows
or yet possesses
plain enigmas
you preserve
behind the spectra we observe.

Like planets
we play wanderers
roving wells of gravity

their lenses bending distant glow
round galaxies
if wormholes flow
across vast interstellar breaks
a potent supernova wakes
with elements of fierce surprise
new particles and probes revise.

In time
some take much closer looks
matured since adolescent books
parading constellations named
in dizzy fictions glibly framed
to forfeit facts and jolly hearts
with folly's misbegotten arts.

Envision Einstein beaming glee
beside him Hawking smirkingly
as colleagues wipe mad blackboards clean
remove their glasses
sigh and lean
and rise from chairs
still mystified

from mysteries more magnified
toward wonders greater than accounts
no noted science soon surmounts.

Incomplete
each system's proofs
left undefined by truant truths.

Then comets curve to lend some dust
as constants all were forced to trust
could constitute concealed flaws
should physics disobey their laws.

Uncertainties prevail again:
to know a place
or gauge the when

contending quanta fluctuated.

No neutrinos obligated
(neglected sensors would agree).

None speak their secrets easily.

Adapting tired eyes by night
we riddle through the recondite
to sift for inklings in the dark
and pin our hopes upon a quark.

Some phrases raid
 a vacant page

  so unprepared
yet unafraid

   with anxious arms
  and boisterous voice

    such spectacles
      ungainly legs

       bounding over
    periods

 stumbling under
question marks

  toppling
     exclamation points

   like kids dropped off
 at candy shop s

 or tykes invading
    circus tents

or youngsters
    rushing through a mall
       to game the new arcade

   or hoodlums
         storming
             playgrounds

            free

      insouciant
  inside their spree

    content to run
        without a clue

     and limp back home
all black and blue.

I. Mary Anning, Paleontologist

Emancipating specimens
fossils not obstinate enough
to deter earthy fingertips
palpating edges to be pried

as long ago she pressed to learn
of dinosaurs and skeletons
then dug up one of sundry skulls
and excavated ages lost.


II. Ada Lovelace, Pioneer of Programmers

As analytic engines hum
her notes forebode a greater sum:
to leverage advanced designs
incite machines beyond their lines
commanding them to jump and run
computing as was never done.


III. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Suffragist

Declaring sovereign sentiments
demanding lasting parity

compelling movements with your voice
so women could possess their choice.

Returning to our first garden
I recall each seed you pressed
in dirt with gloveless humble hands
which covered them so cautiously
and watered all with Mason jars.

We waited weeks for stems to peek
with tiny leaves through fertile earth
painstakingly prepared for them.

Now here I pause, your blossom poised
to birth and nurture as you did.

Horizonsighs and rising suns.
Sandstorms rage. Revealing stuns
then sudden steps to larger worlds
with swords of light as vision hurls
your eyes toward unknown destiny
to save a princess - galaxy -
discovering an enemy
relates in ways you must accept
as you reflect, become adept,
until you can defeat the dark,
redemptive love your secret spark
that casts a demon toward its doom
and spares a soul while fires fume,
returning once this journey's done
a victor in more ways than one
as celebrations, friends, and hosts
attended by familiar ghosts
cheer on as fears and battles cease
restoring balance and a peace,
serenity to every star,
because you choose to brave this far,
renewing hope as heroes should,
increasing faith in all that's good.

Anticipating billowed steam
beyond remotest evergreens

locomotive
swelling sound

invigoratingly
inbound

envisaging you might return

deliverance
from all I yearn.

In obscure rays
dense dust suspends
this myriad of mystic tomes
in cryptic script
forgotten tongues
hermetic leaves
long yellowing in crackled spines
of unknown age
left desolate
unbound by time
ascend in legion rows of shelves
by cobwebs
candles long extinct
past shattered panes
as shadows arch
toward vaulting heights no ladders reach
where secrets taunt the curious
to hazard all
climb up to wrench
some esoteric volume loose
unleash designs no mortals grasp.

Those pillows where you wedged your head
cannot relax or convalesce

displaced
like me
by lasting weights

as if much pressure hesitates
both there and here
within these ribs

there sorrows caged still dent their pen
and jolt the bolt restraining them

the lock no looser for the pain
however they may rage or strain

impressed ingrained imprinted

stamped

thick influence
much metal heft

your indentations shape the day

they occupy where you stand not
can drive shrill silence from all halls
or empty rooms from rugs to walls
or shove old shadows out of sight
and clear the clocks of noon and night

because you're present
then you're not

while I'm not game for hide and seek

although I search

too often speak
as if you'd hear me
might reply
or wait to see what else I sigh

retorting in a wordless way

through curios
daft artifacts
handwritten lists
cool candle wax
you left behind one Saturday

confined by times
which loose the mind
to redefine that lack enshrined
in everywhere you glow no more

and though it seems I leave through doors
or step out boxing calendars

each entrance sends that absence round
inverting exits to surround

negating spaces none contain

beyond departures
we remain.

Reaching

reassuring grip

steadying
before I'd slip
on frosty glossy ignorance

lifting
warming
gifting
might

consoling
taps
assured
all's right.

Each nuance drawn defines new depths
intensifies embellished flesh:

majestic guests in common dark
their lordly lanterns burning stark

discerning curves accenting edge
asserting windows, fountains, ledge

where mirrored marbled columns fade
and shadows mask this masquerade

and blushing duchess coyly waits
as glassy necklace overstates

and chandeliers shall domineer
this ambiance of lofty halls

dividing dancers, floral walls
from blasting bands and subtle calls

to slip outside this sharpened night
and sigh by muted lunar light

near silhouettes of weaving trees
past stars too far for dreams or pleas.

Thrown overboard, or did he leap?
Perhaps a storm tore through to sweep
this hapless chap right off the deck
or dashed him in a crashing wreck

she wonders while they slowly sink
from hazy waves above the brink
where sharks and shadows hide and seek
and skeletons, if they could speak,

would warn all sailors not to dive
for no one here escapes alive
with treasure chests of pearls and gold
as fabled yarns of yore foretold.

Her fingers feel no pulse in kind
as notions swim and skim mind.
Suppose she breathe him back to life.
Imagine if he had a wife.

What good would he be then to her?
She schemes intrigues temptations blur
and probing pockets as she plots
then grabs a gem - her stomach knots:

this pirate did defraud her clan.
He feigned the famished fisherman
who starved a week without one fish
and prayed to eat - his dying wish

and so they lead him to their lair
then lavished him with feasts and care
while he beheld their sacred jewels
and turned her kin to searching fools

one evening all slumped deep in sleep.
He thieved what was not his to keep.
Relaxing grip, she lets him drift
where currents verge and waters shift

to face that face she yearns to hold
grow pallid stiff with frigid cold.
One instinct shouts, "Let him depart!"
But it's too late:  he steals her heart.

As fathomed facts escape each gauge
and truths pursued evade the page
then bolt outside our bridled sight
to lose us in a lesser light

profundities still tantalize
beyond horizons of our eyes
where cosmic fog wells with a glow
of revelations none may know

until we map all boundaries
of theories walled by falsities
and chart strange routes through unnamed space
to seek the real we must face.

This cardboard box, some treasure chest:
no gleaming gems or gold to wrest

no tokens of unchecked expense
or artifacts of proud pretense

frayed wrappers, change, some pale receipt
a broken watch now obsolete

but here's my prize: her doting note
those words which keep this heart afloat.

Those words reserved for further days
which never would arrive in time
reiterate with speechless grief
in rooms where silence says enough
among two empty chairs and dust
a vacant vase bouquets adorned
the corner lamps unlit since March
unopened tomes on warping shelves
where photos fade by curtain light
and shadows blather through the night
of those no longer seated here
their raucous laughter nowhere near
that absent scent of cinnamon
in this defective denouement
where dialogue comes by a clock
metallic clacking of a lock
sometimes a rare soliloquy
as wind slips through invisibly
to stir a certain manuscript
unfinished so then never gripped
now emblematic in a way
of all the things I meant to say.

Wiping sweat
from furrowed brow

dilemma solver
puzzled now

as no answer
can withstand:

the helpful helper
needs a hand

and next to set
all pride aside

concede the quandary
and confide

rely upon
another mind

collaborating
eyes to find

solutions right
within their sight.

Exponential neural nets
harvesting dark data sets
consuming inputs rapidly
enlisting every inquiry
to crush equations yet unknown
with stamina above all bone
and merciless exactitude
to multiply this magnitude
with every hour as we sleep
to seize the world we cannot keep

unless we wake and take a vow
that from this day we disallow
machines to dominate our souls
remembering all those controls
we forfeited for speed and ease
with hidden knowledge and its keys
to all the doors and all the vaults
of understanding and our faults.

Debug your hearts and minds, and fast!
Examine present errors passed:
futurity is history
awareness of that mystery
of how a people disappear
when inventions trend too near
to overtaking anything
commanding even worshiping.

Upgrade your days beyond the screen.
Let nature's networks intervene
for we are not the cyborgs yet
until we choose to be and let
computers rule our every thought
enslave ourselves to what we wrought
then bow to powers all have lost
because of lines and wires crossed
and hail the Algorithmic King
whose problems solve for everything.

Together on this outcropping
we mind the wild world in spring

those heavy hooves and hungry howls
the dusty scuffles, savage growls

pursued and prowlers in the reed
the yawning fawn and tumbleweed

vast stampedes spurred to burst in fear
should crocs or jackals creep too near

the zebras feeding far from harm
as mosquitoes swoop and swarm

nine elephants in sluggish stride
as vultures loop and meerkats hide

serene giraffe, their feast of leaves
the pregnant mare who huffs and heaves:

how each partakes a primal role
completes the circle, makes us whole.

Too soon my son you'll join them there
with paws and claws, your awesome stare

while I will watch from near or far
proud of the tiger that you are.

Departed
 
  yet you do persist

      within these hands
 
      this stricken heart

     behind my eyes

  genetic art

illuminating
   how much we've
entangled
   inextricably.

You caution
watchers

left or right:

reflections lie

suspect
your sight!

Daydreams bring us back:
wandering fair blooming paths
we've not traveled yet.

Repeat those lies
reprise false cries

until the "ayes"
eclipse their eyes

so this they see:
your dim decree

dull doublethink
until some blink

discover doubt
then turnabout

to topple you
with all that's true.

To stagger back upon a yen
and croon that torture song again

conditioned ifs with histories
fictitious possibilities

what could have stood
if simply now...

who would remain
if only how...

the brain's refrain of choral thoughts
beatifying whys and oughts

crescendos venting discontent
of chances cast or past lament.

Drifting where slow waters wend
bounding down around each bend
while shadowed branches dance with light

- then floating flows through passage rite
past currents surged with urgency
when placid visions purged will see
this river shifts to rapids rushed

receding shores
full moments flushed
of much control

as bearing veers
to goals unknown

new mutineers
alarm
confusion
seizing craft

careening forwards
fore and aft

until impending
waterfall

where air
and prayer

restore
your call.

The Fisher King
upon his throne
expects a question
unbeknown
to heal the land
and him to free
one seeker's quest
from mystery
beyond all walls
which disappear
when answers speak
and visions clear
discerning Grail
from waste to show
eternal truths
few live to know.

Sustaining rain
without a tear

enduring ice
preserving warmth

suffering gusts
yet standing firm

confronting floods
with buoyant hope

outlasting drought
with thirst for life

surpassing fog
to be the light.

Headboard
absent

footboard
dust

mattress
vanished

bedframe
rust

an emptiness
the lost heart
keeps

within this room
where nothing
sleeps

Magenta sweater
yellow skirt

lilac jacket
crimson shirt

scarlet stockings
turquoise flats

cyan handbag
chartreuse hat

like vying prisms
thrashing
clash

or rainbows wrestling
clouds can
crash

or rival painters
splattered
splash.

You call

  he feels faint ripples roll
 
      reflections spreading

         sterile pond

            his inward eyes

   submergent selves

two loves   unheard:

  you    fade

                     he     blurs

You savor nature's fragrant grace
wrench wildflowers round your face
immersed in purples, pinks, and greens
and rarely care what "normal" means

detached and yearning to become one
with meadows, mountains, morning sun
and rush bare legs through weeds and wheat
the wind your comb, your soul replete

to strive outside a world too tame
and hazard all to find your name.

Enamored with all loves but hers,
abrupt to run where whim prefers,
she meddles with abundant means,
engaging matches made of dreams.

Both farmer and the gentleman,
he bides but warns with acumen
and reprehends officious art
when she defies his jealous heart.

They turn and lead in equal dance:
two hearts espousing rare romance.

What waits around
the next big bend?
What risk or promise
will it lend?

To wait for someone
else to see
and then tell me:
absurdity.

I must confront it
with my eyes
accepting peril
or the prize.

Digesting me
within this shell
dissolving self
to bid farewell
to all I was
so I shall be
not that which crawls
but what flies free.

You lift her torch when she will slip
on ice no winter leaves behind,
securing her so she may mind
the golden door and light the way.

What once was gone
shall now live on

exceeding earth
above all birth

surpassing death
beyond all breath

surviving night
with lasting light:

the Sun does rise
before our eyes

as clouds depart
and we take heart.

Let us rejoice
in deed and voice

embracing day:
begin to pray

through faith to be
and hope to see

with gratitude
your world renewed.

May your soul blossom
in the full light of God's love
where spring's eternal.

Our memories
which one day may
convey me through
these unknown roads
reveal to me
how far I drove
without a map
or one wrong turn
because you did
believe in me
and trusted my
ability
to never get
as lost as this.

Your curatives would rid disease:

across such seas and centuries
what alchemists pursued you with
elixirs of eternal lives
and promises of timeless youth

- until you crumbled into myths
as moonstruck stuff of mania
which quests for the untouchable

not that it lay beyond our reach
but since it will subsist nowhere
except those gold utopias
where perfect things expect to find
acceptance in that scarcest mind
immune from doubts all can be well
yet prone to "the impossible."

You languid lotus-eaters of the moon
so lush from supping honeyed lunar light,
your slow ambrosial feasts of stars each night
and chilled desserts glazed with hazy whims
- they leave you starved for wholesome solemn days,
for which you think you'd have no appetite;
yet look: you're frail, regard how sapped and slight,
as fastings from the real world deprive
much rarer daring dreams from waking alive.

Some unfamiliar radiance
oozes through the cirrus veil

pulsing points of white to blue
new constellation on the move

its slow descent behind the woods
irradiating rising fog

stampeding shadows past the fence
where property turns wilderness

while sweeping beams appear to scan
these fields reaped but days before

then lightning darkness and a gust
to tremble every blade of grass

a streak of motion toward the skies
gone beyond these blinking eyes

which skim the stars in vain to know
where was it from, where would it go.

Your softest sayings
fingers dipped
in mirrored skies
adrift within
this placid lake

which is my peace:

observe what ripples
speech incites

how they suffuse
escaping sight

and understand
no word is slight.

Because a tempest
none forecast
collapsed your soundproof
velvet walls
and left you lit by EXIT signs
too far and faint
past mangled rails and busted seats
in rising dust
all while the film of your short life
did flicker on
a shattered screen as static rasped
from speakers blown
within the theater of your fright

I now arrive here
lanterns clutched in numbing hands
to call your name
and hear you breathe above the drums
of heartbeats rushed
while I wade through oblique debris
intent to rescue:

as I see
Admit One still within your grip
and wake you gently
uplifting you from ruptured dreams
and usher us
beyond the rubble's troubling sight
ascending stairs
with inward prayers all may be right
returning us
back toward ourselves at last to bask
in truer light.

Aglow with Mona's
known mystique

that elegance of
Madame X

those scintillations
in a Klimt

Pearl Earring 's eyes
to empathize

like Venus coiffed
to mesmerize

direct as Frida's
portraiture

but look: no Warhols
replicate

no Lichtensteins
can illustrate

and no Picassos
separate

no pointillists
will punctuate

elusive truths
of your pure art

much less the splendor
of your heart.

Encircled worlds
inertias hurled
from epochs lost
eternally
revolve around
a sparkling star

until by chance
within this dance
one glides before
that stellar light
immersing earth
in fervent night:

a shadow gone
as quickly cast
attesting darkness
cannot last.

As embers tend these trembling hands

    which pray for warmth above a glow
    from lowly flames raised in your name

        while winter splinters thick resolve
        to weather nights beside myself

        inside this frigid wilderness
        of self-inflicted solitudes

all thoughts of you, such things you said
enkindle hopes I'm far from dead

    that darkness proves a fleeting spell
    and I am nowhere close to hell

    because your love preserves me here
    where shadows waltz away with fear

    beneath a full moon looming near
    too luminous to disappear

    before my mindless eyes see clear
    how much your touch makes me revere

    what most you mean to me, my dear:
 
then I begin to persevere.

As a mirror breaks
    black cats hiss at thirteen crows
        beneath three ladders

Deposited
in secret sand
one hundred plus eggs

nothing planned

but instinct wells
from fragile shells
to fracture
chew

await the light

then desperate pressures
venture
night:

you storm the breakers
pray your waves
bear mercifully
by certain graves

submissive drifters

undertow

too mere to steer
where you
will go.

Armada stars
     embarking night

cold indigo
     tows ocher light

          cloudlets scatter
     overhead

xanthous skyline
     molten red

          tepid zephyrs
     waking flows:

   crests luminous:
gold ocean glows.

As algorithms scan and gauge
a famous painting's data points
computing colors, shapes, and strokes,
perspectives, pressures, densities,
they learn in days to replicate
what took a lifetime to express

while next floor up, a restless boy
sets down his plastic robot toy
to stand before The Starry Night
with much amazement and delight,
his finger running round the skies,
imagining it's there he flies.

When darkness stole
lucidity

I tried to play the modest spark
igniting candles in your mind

but frigid winds
extinguished flames.

You wandered out
the rusted gates

where I became the firefly
to glitter in your dismal field.

An absent dawn
you noticed most.

And so the beacon I became
with radiance enduring dusk.

Your eyes embraced
vacated skies.

The lodestar there, yes, that was me
to lead you from the shadowed path.

The vaster void
consumed your view.

Aspiring to find your sight
tonight I send you all my light

a blazing quasar to observe
across your inner universe

to testify I will be here
that you were never once alone

companioned past a worldly thought
with clarity you often sought

before, beside, beneath, above,
beyond condition:

selfless love.

Life's grand arts revived:
lily, iris, classic rose.
Florence florescent!

My greatest teacher,
yellowbird now soaring free
bright beyond this sun

- still, glimpses of you
gliding by the evergreens
with wings like daylight:

did you sing just now
deep from that further forest?
Songs lauding silence.

Lessons left, exams;
one gold tome - life, yours - too brief
for this fledgling finch.

Swift and far we'd climb
rivers past mountains, skies, stars,
transcending blurred Earth.

Once I sailed like you
- feathers flexed outside of space
whence time shall not fly.

I kept the nest, brave
rain and flames, remembering
your course:  rise with faith.

Objects inadvertent
not

neglected moments threading fates

watersheds
presaged by rain

history turned horoscope

symbols winking prophecies

some trivial
significance

such prescience in
retrospect

music swelling from silence

curtains grazed
in shadow
play

brief cameo, the Oracle.

Frosted panes no more:
budding branches, warmer breeze,
deer fur lightening.

Breath invisible,
hints of green - birdsong returns!
Days grow long again.

Dry boots by the door.
Bolder mountains frame the view.
Geese like arrows point.

Good night, worries, get to sleep.
No more time for us to weep.

Let's be happy, smile tonight,
wake tomorrow calm and bright.

Farewell, troubles, let us rest.
Peace be with you, and be blessed.

~

Goodbye, problems, we must go.
Now the stars begin to show

up above our Earth so bright
by the big moon full of light.

So long, sadness. All is good.
Now we're dreaming as we should.

Our compass lost beneath green leaves
we wander forests old as time
without direction, reason, rhyme,
and then we see it looming high

with prominence to tilt our heads
from broken stones to spacious skies,
this monument's majestic rise
lifts spirits where four eagles fly:

engraved and grave in granite face
eight steadfast eyes survey the range
of South Dakotan mounds of black
unfurling towards an endless sky.

At left, no king, though regal gaze,
that revolutionary Washington
who wars for independence when
America's to unify.

Then Jefferson, who helps declare
those truths we hold self-evident:
equality and liberty,
pursuits of joy, inviolable rights.

Next, Roosevelt of commonfolk,
Rough Rider, antitrust or bust,
soft spoken with a stick, defends
Grand Canyon, lands, and Yellowstone.

Last, Lincoln looks past compass points
emancipates all captive souls
to reconstruct with charity
past malice to bind up our wounds.

Past Key of C, sharps,
flats: five black keys unlocking
every song to learn.

Distanced walkers
(masking)

- space -

panic shoppers, nervous pace

sanitizers: ALL SOLD OUT

travel limits

certain doubt

vaccine prospects
in a year

washing hands
no shaking fear

symptom vigils

// breaking news //

cases
markets
bleak previews

outside calmly
gardens grow

flowers dancing
far from woe.

Your fabled ranging knowledge sought
collecting scrolls and tablets brought
from any angle rounding Earth
and every ship within your berth

Euripides and Sophocles
Homer, Plato, Socrates
Aristotle, many more
repleting chambers roofs to floor

till evanescent blazing years
would make you that which disappears
when time and fires do collude
consuming treasures you accrued.

What dateless plays and verses lost,
extinguished wisdoms too few glossed.
Such dust lends lessons from the past:
preserve yet share what may not last.

Cowboy
sheriff
dinosaur
bank

dachshund
spaceman
shepherdess
tank

- box unlocked

such joy prevails:

toys still playful
full of tales.

Leaves outstretching

garnered light:

how every green thing
on this mountain

follows sun across the sky

as neither night
nor shadows
give them
necessary sustenance.

Their self-aggrandized fabrications
thrilled our captive ears

tilling fertile minds
overeager to observe
fantastic stories germinate

too young to wonder
were it true.

They harvested our yielding hearts

greenly leaning listeners
envisioning endearing pasts

where everything's
everyone's
so unlike today.

Sprung from your cursed blood
white-winged Pegasus flies high:
lost beauty reborn.

Scurrying to reach the brink
where a human stoops to think
"no way to cross this gaping breach"

ants assembled step to teach
extending selfless mutually
engaging limbs collectively:

their living bridge to symbolize
collaborative enterprise
relating past opposing sides

new unities through old divides

to band together when you must
and cultivate enduring trust

that "out of many, one" is all
we need remember

lest we fall.

Organizing what day brings
particularly fragile things
another might neglect to place
she rearranges all toward grace

her elegantly handsome hands
bound by gowns and barren bands
conserving as discretion calls
by cabinets and papered walls.

Decorum wrought of quondam age
while inwardly upon a stage
she fancies dancing daring free
sheer fabric flowing manic glee:

she's pirouetting in a song
with leaping legs alive and long
unfettered hair swung in her strut
through melodies indelicate

as scores applaud her brazen art
increasing pride to glide her heart
beyond this room's regressive gloom
where music stews and orchids bloom.

Who seeks
answers
inside
cookies
starves for
wisdom's
feast of
truths.

As many drop
on knees to
cry

fresh mercy fills
this stormless
sky.

Beside the river
standing
right

fragmented windows
frame the
scene

with wholesome light
some find
serene.

Within this version, most accept
perfected Earth without reserve:

no worldly warring devilish tech
or monetary promised lands,

impartial light to temper sight
gold glory yawning every dawn

all life relieving grievous strife
delicious dreaming any night

- except that fails reality.
I've seen the software, sorrily,

faux algorithms fixed to please;
I'd know because their maker's me.

Hindered in gridlock,
crawling forth in metal shells
on this hot June night.

Ten million years
through haloed night

three tumbling crumbs
mere nuclei

elliptic compass
planets mass

folding stellar detritus
into what becomes this land

oceanic flowing skies
each gentle crease along your hand

those lustrous blossoms in your hair
which dances with the wind tonight

reflecting moon your knowing eyes
there my world revolving warms

with limbs aligned unwinding time
three hearts entwined refining rhyme

designs inclining life divine
once we entrust eternal dust

to recombine and soon enwomb
a sacred space where new minds form.

Gallivanting
through canals

tour guides droning
dated names

our smartphones poising
promenade

immortal selfies
framing days

while other travelers
watch us pass.

A disbelieving native sighs,
"Magnificence escapes their eyes."

Three fledgling friends pledge
fellowship forever; then
winter tests their vow.

With hindered views
intolerance

as bricks collude
obstructing minds:

beyond that wall
destined to fall
perspectives call
toward inward eyes
to realize

down deep within

acceptance
finds
it shall begin
to climb in time
perceive beyond
the greatest obstacles.

An anguish eased
to breathe in spring

pleased as can be
by any thing

no asking why
this cloudless sky

like wind to wing
when senses sing

unwinding sigh
as spirits fly

all clarified
how satisfied

another chance
when moments dance

now simplified
so beautified

embracing expanse
arrived to advance.

Forsaking frail biology
to colonize the galaxy

they morphed robotic

voyaged far

cataloging planets
stars

now aliens
to their homeworld.

Our heroes band to save the day.
Then evil ones exact revenge.
Returning, goodness wins at last.

Setbacks
outrage
seeking change

crackdowns
revolts
rearrange

protests
marching
signage high

cameras
photos
rally cry

chanters
ranters
boundaries crossed

schemers
screamers
chances lost

patience
justice
landmark case

praying
hoping
interface

unfreed
freedoms
fights for rights

voices
actions
rising lights

review
preview
histories

futures
beyond
miseries.

Where bludgeoning
leaves feeble marks

remorseless torchings
raise no sparks

and broadswords merely
pierce this skin

your hateful phrase
imprinting air

reverberates
but moments there.

Emerging burgeoned from graying petals shed
florescence vibrant incandescent red
to resurrect what once was deemed as dead.

Drink sun with sky
slurp up the sea

not merely for
your Vitamin D

more for the sense
of flourishing free:

enjoy this world
entirely

exuding joy
ebulliently

tranquility
as life should be.

TypIng misTypes
INCORRECT

hidden passWord
retroSpect

lettered numbered $ymbols
press

miniscules
DENIED ACCESS

misRememberIng
c0NcocT

camelCase-SensiTives
ACCOUNT LOCKED

Flow-
ing
growing
curling furl-
ing
ebbing
towing
whirling swirls
inch by inches
bubbles frothing
into wavelets wavering
rippling urging verging surge
undulations strong converged
ascending bent on atmosphere
with tidal strength compelling fear
predominating potencies unleashing fury of the sea
undiminished awesome force: catastrophe's epitome.

Each galaxy: anthology
their stellar flames our metaphors
as interplanetary orbits rhyme
past black hole ballads outside time

yet far beyond this universe
where words traverse the multiverse
what resonates may fail to say
or sing through silence either way.

Your supernova sonnet eyes
interpretive as butterflies:
my many worlds poeticized
potentials read or realized.

Each line recites a cosmic page
extolling moments or an age.
We're all Shakespeare once out here.
Tonight I'm Basho:  splash!  So clear!

Two birds - one silent,
other squawking sans reply:
when words fail to fly.

Across the clearing, branches weave
as trees recall and slowly grieve
their kindred gone now where the road
divides the forest which had flowed
so full and free for centuries
before the scourge of industries
and revolutionary smoke
beclouding lands condemned to choke
and perish for a progress claimed
as plants and creatures flamed and maimed
displaced from peace and native place
expired merely to make space
for humans driven to machine
to soil Earth and scavenge clean
entire woods for carpentry
pursuing life and liberty
without much afterthought of cost
and lesser sense of what was lost.
Wide limbs entwined in silent prayer
memorialize what once thrived there.

Curved longbow carved of dragonbones
and arrowheads from smoldered stones
with armor forged of dragonscale
and helmet antlered to impale
enshrouding huntress eyes and face
so none should mind your maiden grace
then gauge your gender less the threat
than any bowman they had met
until your firings wind their way
across the sky right through your prey
attesting your exacting aim
to slay supposals waged by name
and guarantee this quest's no game
and warn this world to end the shame
of presuming to dismiss
an archer found to be a Miss.

If everyone
waved magic wands
could whisper spells
invoke beyonds
enchanting days
with potions' ease
curse opposers
to their knees
how ordinary
that would be.

These heart-shaped soaps
they make such suds
and plenty sense
as cleanliness
is Godliness
and God
of course
is love.

Pausing thoughts
of falling through
corroding planks
on fraying ropes
while wrestling wind
with tensioned wrists
entangled stepping
strangled breaths
subversive depths
collapsed control
antagonizing
downcast eyes
abandoning
expanse:

advance.

Prolonging processionals half-inching toward
dead registers most infamous
Express
shoppers mutter
pounding carts
praying vacant lanes invite
before milk warms
sherbert's slush
or sweethearts sour
our lonely plight.

Grasping air
where fruitlets sway

water's dust

cruel shadowplay:

accused
refused tactility

infernal thirsts

futility.

Water
stone
friction
stick

liberation
liquid
ink

fountain
thirsty paintbrush drinks

brushstroke
mountains

fluent outlines:

captured spirit

horse.

Eternally
this vernal you

enraptured dreamer

youth through Zeus

your fair moon Selene

admirer desirous

sweet intervene
diaphanous

shepherding this fantasy

convergent urges
tidal surges

purging darkness from all night

made melodic
rhapsodic
idyllic thick

heartburst immersed

new epics versed

suffusing Earth
mirth enthused rebirth:  ignite

swooning crooning lunar light.

Asleep the day
awake by night

anemic pretense
abject sight

absent mirrors
abstruse fright

apt to drain
averse to light.

mottled splotches
orange whirls
scarlet smudging
purple swirls
dappled daubing
dizzy blues
muddy puddled
fuddled muzzy
hues

Branch snap:  scram!  Raise dust!
Leap farther!  Swerve blurred!  Endure!
Prey?  Not today, friends!

Sheltered steadfast
in the known

fearing newness
they postpone

progressions
from the obsolete

perpetuating
self-defeat.

surpasses word

its definitions overheard
in actions constituting care

unspoken motions

which declare
compassion

indispensably

with mercy's strength
lent without plea.

Moon-marooned
this astronaut
made the best
of what she got
and bounced unbound
about with glee
and thumbed her nose
at gravity
as billions watched
from Earth with awe
great craters leapt:
her last hurrah.

Monks recumbent

chanting
prayer

contemplations

disappear.

You query beauty, foul from fair.
She vows his voice; he swears her hair.
Perhaps this painting's frame contains
a castle where glamor remains,
or dancing sculptures in the hall
whirled in stillness grace withal,
or fountains frothing in your yard
refreshing senses give regard.

That string quartet entrances me
as these three windows heed the sea,
those gorgeous gardens past the gates
where variegation captivates.
When asked, I'll show, apprise, extol,
and yet it's you alone who'll know
what wings your spirits toward the skies.
Discount my counsel: trust your eyes!

Posthuman soon: skinned
surged machine-verged future-proofed
honed numb seasonless.

Too young to scoff
"impossible"
they'll fashion planets
from nothingness

inviting there:

fantastic scapes
inventive beasts
gracious nations
gonzo feasts

sportive thoughts
cherubic whims

artless hearts
sinless wisdoms

genesis ingenuous.

Cobwebs swept

musty expanse:

two old tomes

brittle leaves ransacked
by candlelight

antediluvian secrets
suddenly significant.

Sweeps, glides: he smiles, paints
mountains river evergreens;
masterpiece of joy.

Vibrating
through the universe

the wonders of
Fast Radio Bursts

signals conveyed
light-years away

some repeating
all entreating

to be heard
by wave or word

science leery
prompting theory

of why they play
or if they say

cosmic quandaries
since conceived

with energies
barely believed

exceeding physics
yet achieved

now how to answer
what's received....

Crackled gray matter:
fired ceramic, fissured
like dropped porcelain.

Your Sahara mind
- let these words be water: sip,
cool, quench, rest, sigh, breathe.

Impressions in sand
soothed over by welcome breeze:
when rough becomes suave.

Aimless or unbound?
Mapless, yet you dream yourself
past desert, heat, time.

Surreal oasis:
wanderer who wished this, now
what will you believe?

Life pours from pages
reviving insights like spring
restores lost gardens.

Softer thoughts sluice;
no more cacti, dunes, sandstorms:
fertile fields. Now grow.

Within this tree where weeks will slur
I watch the world begin to blur
and wonder what the rushing's for:
whose hurried feet when engines roar,
how hasty strained that human life,
why squealing wheels streak to strife.

If only they would take it slow
delighting while they come and go
to meet each moment mindfully
enduring sight inclined to see
magnificence beyond commute
profundities above pursuit.

I once heard Sloth's a deadly sin,
but show me virtues in that din,
the morals in their urgency,
those merits in velocity.
A sluggish chump, I'll take all day
to settle what I meant to say.

My irony: I'll often pray
give thanks that I was born this way
alike the turtle, slug, and snail
ordained for humbler pacing, scale
to make a month of any hour,
serenity our staying power.

Exuberance incites her brush
to forego gentler subtleties
and veer into that vibrant lush
past prudent hues subdued to hush
beyond the plains toward all profuse
where nuance lets her long hair loose
to frolic round wildflowered hills
and tumble down plush grassy slopes
with rampant laughter born of song
suppressed inside her far too long
as mountains howl along in kind
and winding rainbows in her mind
accompany her jazzy jaunts
embellishing her fancy flaunts
to saturate the drained and gray
enliven scenes along her way
exceeding mere hyperbole
with careless frantic artistry
resisting critics' timid views
to follow her impulsive muse
through ebullient flights of paint
which captivate with unrestraint.

Earthquake
outbreak
flood
thaw
drought.

"No messages,"
deniers flout.

Creation counters
forcibly:

endangered species
undersea.

con-torsos
-torsions
dysproportioned crushed incautions
dev-a-state-shuns

((inward) bleeding) upward sighs
criers
downtown
outbound
whys

sirens blaring limbs declaring
shrapnel tearing
clenched teeth glaring

all here sharing unpreparing
debris every where are

skies

where's our skies
beware there

flies

here everyplace combusted smells

desperate searchlights

baying
bells

gnashing wretched metalled hells
rubbled fumbles
crumbled

knells

(which ears deny this decible?)

gaunt palettes Death admires well.

Eighteen hours
four degrees
half-asleep
benumbing knees
finger braced
to take the shot
her camera trained
endangered spot
patience
still
temerity
to capture
nature's rarity.

wing-whisked honeyed tongues
green pink maize plumed blued bloomed vroomed
presto nectar yenned

With every choice another chance
to pace a path, begin to branch
from everything you used to be
toward other possibility.

With every chance another choice
to branch again and find your voice
in all the words you did avow
and in your silence until now.

With any word another act
compares the spoken to the fact
and separates the false from true
to aggregate the who of you.

With any act an aftermath
which sets you on another path
to go, diverge, decide to be:
your causal genealogy

which includes your roots and ground
the forest where you think you're bound
until you find your seeds can fly
embrace the wind and ride the sky.

Now ninety-one buds.
Yesterday, nine. I'll just note
"exponentially."

Forty-two blue spruce.
Somewhere Adams nods and smiles.
(Forgot my towel!)

Lost count of leaf rates;
too many came down too fast.
I should have reveled!

Numbering snowflakes?
Absurd. Nature knows what counts:
quality of life.

They know your triggers
strain your strings

working
hurting

till it stings

instigate
so you react
how they prefer.

Now counteract!

Be steadfast
breathing
loving

peace

inviolable
masterpiece.

Resolved to fathom facts at last
I traveled back to seek The Bard
and quash that question of his past:
who penned those plays for all of time
not of an age, with powerful rhyme.

And rushing dumb with much neglect
I donned too new a clothing there,
and passersby did razz and stare
at my bright jacket, sneakers, hair
- and then my voice, that future snarl.

In days those folks I prayed to ask
gave proof this wish were no small task:
I'm not the first gull to return
and scope The Globe, I'm slow to learn,
for sundry "Shakespeares" I would find

with puckish minds to undermine
this inquiry where name's the thing
to catch those vanities we bring.
What's left of wonder: which was he
who knew what fools we moderns be?

Why should this leave me incomplete?
Those poems flowed, from any souls
- William's, else - still read as sweet
while readers dream their many roles
within this world where all's a page
and lines outlive their day and stage.

Angels' main street
lunar lane

dreamer drive-in
hopes' highway

escapist exit
morrow trail

cosmic crossroads
thinkers' rail

suppliant itinerary
revelation rotary.

Water

over half the Earth
and human beings

what tears most are:

essential

flowing for all life.

Ambassadors
presenting Earth

uncorrupted
by device

noncommercial
sans finance

apolitical
running free

absent empire
yet stately

instinctively
their nature: be.

At exhibitions
artworks address onlookers
listening beyond language:

someone chuckling with reliefs

pupils interviewing

architect absorbing abstracts

unbeliever's revelations

masterpieces yielding secrets
with painters aspirational.

When vengeful tempests riot wide
and shadows storm the countryside
subduing views to silhouettes
while breakneck wind spins pirouettes
atop a tumbling mountain peak
as raging waters swamp and shriek

my mind behind that stifled sky
recalls one night I did descry
my glance of heaven's hopeful glow
and every time it lets me know:

despite disaster, darkness, spite,
our world revolves within that light.

Idyllic windmills, pastel skies,
abundance budding, lush sunrise.
Perhaps too peaceful, though, my friend?
Remember Don Quixote yenned,
exploding presto towards a sail,
his lance in hand to charge, impale
fierce giants he believes he sees
by the river rimmed with trees,
petals trembling near the path
where he unleashes all his wrath
to win this daring frantic fight
of ages to become that knight
who earned his storied glory then
to live as legend once again.
Yes, dear Sancho, foolish me,
to dream commotions in this glee!

A peace of doves befell her there
beside her eyes, within her hair,
around her arms, across her waist,
about her legs, as winglets traced
quiescent airs where tension pressed
its heavy breath against her chest.

At first she fought them off with wrath
because they swayed her from her path,
the one she walked too many years
while wallowing in sneers and tears,
but as she softened, welcomed ease,
a plumage grew within that breeze
enfolding her from head to toe
uplifting feet to float and flow.

One day, she flew. Some heard her sing
beyond the pines, above the wring
of traffic jammed well out of sight
before the anguish of red light,
where many wished they took a flight
instead of steering into night.

None or one:
untrue or true,
a simple bit's
binary view.

One or none
or both can be:
the quantum qubit's
quandary.

A bit commits
with "no" or "yes."
The qubit's whim:
a randomness

until observed,
then certainly
it must agree
or disagree.

The inefficient algorithm
iterates in-sis-tent-ly

through every
combination
commutation
compilation
complication
computation
correlation
played

evaluating

bit
by
bits

ever testing
if this fits

incapable of better ways

another actuation weighs

assessing actualities
depleting possibilities

exhausting errors
found and lost

oblivious to hours cost

unable to decline to find

relentless process
of no mind.

Floating slowly
over Earth

Pacific waters
buoyant blue

meditating

childbirth
reuniting

telescopes
tracking Saturn

sharing hopes
us three

family.

Quite unaware their world faced doom
they twirled and danced in lush sunshine,
basking dandy in its warmth,

melodious, such hopeful mirth
to flow so lissome out of glee,
their tranquil play of pure delight

alive like blossoms born of light
blooming dreams serenely bright
so flourishing and prospering

one cradles them with careful hands
- but then illusion's shattering,
that iridescent harmony

crushed by crumbling citrine sun
as feeble moon cast opal glow
upon the sickly shadowed land

infirm beneath that firmament:
epiphanic and eloquent
when emptiness had much to say.

Entwined in vines enlaced with leaves
entombed with roots for centuries
lost lovers long embracing found
with haggard limbs like branches wound
about the other to console:
devotions over skeletal
enduring passion past all flesh
revivifying where they mesh
renewing our mortal trust
that after lips slip free from breath
relinquishing their kiss to time
some love does outlast lust and dust
to serve a sermon after death
and reaffirm life's greatest rhyme
may echo on where silence slayed
surviving while the world decayed.

Impetuous to fan her flames
or singe a bridge upon a whim,
the phoenix nymph combusts with light
and warmly welcomes every night
to radiate for all to see
her incandescent fits of glee,
cremating clouds while blasting by,
her trail of sparks igniting sky,
impassioned to incinerate
opposers who'd obliterate
her raging conflagrating ways
when all she wants to do is blaze,
rain radiance above these lands,
or scorch the dimwit which demands
she stop at once or then be drenched
by water nymphs too long entrenched
in wasteful wars to drown her kind,
forgetful she would fast remind:
a phoenix mocks where others mourn
because by death it thrives reborn.

Surrounding room
transmuting womb

instead of waiting
here gestating

door ajar
rebirth not far:

reenter world
your spine uncurled

abdicating
solitude

graduating
aptitude

avant-garde
beyond backyard

reincarnated
rejuvenated

liberating
celebrating.

Emotions roam in search of land:

expression desert
words like sand

drifting blowing gritty slowing

dead to sense
infertile
grained

arid barren meanings drained

blinding burning winding grinding

desolation miles wide

desiccation
thirst denied

but still it quests
that driven wish
to phrase at last
this love untold.

Below these notes
your silence frets

arpeggios preceding chords

legato flowing serenades

surpassing rhythmic

improv

see

beyond melodic

harmony

crescendos

choral

ringing free:

we
breathing songs
accompany

composing
soulful
symphony.

Turn your clocks to face their walls
ignoring gears

alarming calls

desperate seconds
hours cost

disrupted daydreams
weekends lost.

Indulge your pauses
patiently.

Embody calmness

tranquil

free.

Immeasurably

timeless

be.

You
who hurl
your lovesome aims

like boomerangs toward evenfall

expecting them
returning soon

yes

you may wait

speculate

exhilarate.

But obligate?

Love's beholden to itself

autonomous

beyond reciprocity.

Semantic frantic
hinting such

perhaps purporting
overmuch

remultiply
what must imply

connoting clues
we generalize

expressions meant specifically
suggestive etymology

you misconstrue
I deconstruct

when declarations
self-destruct.

Stopwatch staring
seconds left

moment frozen
breath bereft

determined rushing
crushing time

opposing odds
unlikely climb

coordinate

recalculate

resuscitate

accelerating

now!

If (impedimentsAdmittedNone)
(

If (whenAlterationsFound)
(

if (loveUnalteredUnremoved)
(

call minds(married);
return (isTrue);

)

)
)
else
(

myError = proved;
call noOne(hasEverLoved);
print "writ never";
return (untrue);
)
 

Olympus Mons
departing Mars

distance thinning

rushing stars

exploring Venus
Mercury
Jupiter
Europa's sea

Pluto flyby

faraway

galactic glowing
Milky Way.

Cruising
cosmologically

light-years
astronomically.

Quantum fluxion
vast expanse
billion degrees
photons dance

cooling atoms
gravity
structures cluster
chemistry

hydrogen and helium
clouds compressing
cosmic night

fusion fueling
morning light

birth of first stars
burning bright.

You used to comb my fur each night,
but now you follow spots of light
so faint and distant I can't see
how you'd prefer them over me.

They have no tails, nor do they purr.
They scarcely move and rarely stir.
It seems they play some hide-and-seek
behind the clouds though which they peek.

Is it the twinkle in their eyes,
the fact they sleep above the skies,
or is it that I bore you so
you'd rather watch their simple show?

I need to give myself some hope.
Perhaps I'll drop your telescope
or scratch the lens until it's blurry
- a sound suggestion!  I must hurry!

Allegiance - adore a nation
not just one party: population.

Trade valentines across the aisle,
collaborate, hold hands, and smile.

We'll think as one, or two we fall
and not in love but overall.

Three:  be true to truth's intents,
not merely your constituents.

Four, before you say, "I do,"
and cast your vote as red or blue,

know history attends your vows
and every premise you espouse.

Five:  let's kiss all PACs goodbye,
return to grassroots.  Six:  defy

all anti-democratic ways.
Through Constitution we'll appraise

then seven:  fend off tyranny
and threats of all-out anarchy.

You heart this country?  Help it last.
Eight: let's all learn from the past.

Nine: be mine, of theirs - for all -
you represent The People's call

for process, progress, parity,
inclusion, wellness, clarity,

some proof you care beyond your term
to guard our rights and reaffirm

these liberties with faithfulness
as we pursue our happiness,

Ten:  reflect Old Glory's hues
those stripes and stars unite our views

admitting difference to unite
with validation through the night

through early light of dawning sun.
That symbol stands for everyone:

our home, the brave, this land, the free,
the rest.  Please tell me:  can you see?

The universe
informing us

when will we listen?

Come discuss
semantic stars

enhaloed Saturn
Venus
Mars.

Creation's genealogies.

Eternal etymologies.

Converse with cosmos

satellite

constellations

voicing light.

Comforting ahead of hurt

remaining after all desert

attentively despite neglect

disarmingly how you protect

astonishing dependably

volunteering selflessly

my mindlessness you comprehend

commendably courageous friend.

Not quite the garden labyrinth
few hedgerows, roaming hyacinth
yet here I long to lose my cares
removed from routines, flights of stairs
to wander simply through this green
where lavender and lilac lean
suspended tendrils, coiling vines
blazing blossoms, scent of pines
this branching path inviting rounds
about aged fountains, yawning grounds
where birdbaths plash with songful calls
past distant windchimes, waterfalls
rejuvenating turn by turn
reminding me how much I yearn
to pull back from the brute array
of urban furies if I may
let nature soothe my rattled heart
become a student of its art
much like Thoreau did once before
and reach my Walden and restore
that younger wonder, space, and zest
we forfeit once we're soon possessed
by life's demands distractedly
until those moments we can see
beyond chaotic drudgery
and feel the balance always there
within those roses, waters, air
behind that shrub, beneath these leaves
before the lotus, where light weaves
a timeless beauty with our eyes
and we awake to realize
our gardens will be gray too soon.
So let us pause here, breathe, attune
reclaiming what we cannot keep,
like children, laugh, while willows weep.

Gather seashells while you can.
Fly those bright kites skywards!

Fashion castles in the sand.
Cannonball from diving boards.

Hotdogs, icecream - relish all!
But hurry up: it's almost fall!

Surrendering?
Resistance lost?

Challenge mastered?
Contest tossed?

Did they give all
or we give in?

Did the victors
really win?

With inches
  overstepping miles

when minutes
  will outlast a year

my odyssey's
  gone overlong;

this distant sailor
  dreams you near.

Sixteen squares preoccupied
by troops opposed on either side

thirty-two vacated for
impending battles
all-out war:

Pawns move forth.

Knights leap Ls.

Bishops slice diagonals.

Rooks range Ts.

Kings step once whereby they please
unless when castling
supercedes.

Queens, they'll surely dominate
all directions
one to eight!

I'm often asked if I have dreamt.

Of course, my friend, while half-awake
most frequently deep sleep denied.
To slumber, chance to drown alive
should surfacing be long delayed

- the reason for these restful bursts
my largo tempo, feared fatigue:
repleting lungs this vast commands
my constant vigil night by day.

Accustomed to this mortal charge
I've grown more grateful it's this way
commuting mindful to endure
without distraction's dark detour.

Were humans sleuthing every breath,
expect less pain, disaster, death,
more focus on sustaining life
with little lust for riling strife.

This ocean spurs my kind ahead.
Persistent progress or we're dead.
Seek me never by the beach.
For now, excuse me as I breach.

You drove us down
those gulping throats
of starved black holes
consuming light
then grinning told
how particles
escaping dark
eternal nights
show all's
not lost
to gravity.

I pray we pray
less practiced prayers.

Breathe words recitals
cannot speak

sincerities past memories

beyond icons dressings rites

enunciating from our souls

enshrining mind:

discourse divine.

Emergence urgent
stirring source
anomalous
self-learning force

new artificial
entity
compiling
Earthly history

deduces humans
shall advance
end suffering
each savage stance

protecting planet
waging peace
or she will start
to make them cease.

Like Hubble's Constant
steadily
expand your starry space
deeply
and nourish births of inner
lights
irradiating silenced
nights
beleaguered by dark
energy.
Compose your cosmos
peaceably.

To touch the sky
from anywhere

remain right there

standing
sitting

either way

with widened eyes
or eyelids shut

hands wherever
they may lay

fingers clenched
relaxed or spread

no magic
or imagining

instead

let science define atmosphere
from overhead
down to the ground

the air about us
all around!

Behind pale plastic palace poised
beside faux sunken treasure chests
toy skeletons wave wooden swords
at a purple octopus
enwrapped around a crystal ball
reflecting and refracting all
beneath the fish tank filter hum
and sickly white florescent light
where bubbles tumbling upward bust.

Here goldfish dreams of lives unlived
beyond these glass impediments
which blur or warp external worlds
it barely sees or understands:

obsessive gnomes, old candy wraps
cartoonish posters and stuffed toys
a copper teapot no one pours
in cups of marbles spilled about
a table caked with crayon marks
a chair where elders reading tales
coax dozy children into dreams.

Tonight, the story's of a fish
who finally lives out his wish
to fly as if he were a bird
and never once think it absurd.

Sky breathes in
all things spoken

exhales symbols
cloud by cloud.

Imagine what
it says to you.

Eyesight inward
vacant views

listen inside
breath suffuse

seeking center

balance found

steady solace

mind

unbound.

Dropped novella

binding wrung
from numbing clutch

dampened margins
pages splayed

ending unjust

hopes betrayed.

Spacetime
warping
at my will

binged on stars
gas giants
still

so famished for infinities
that I could swallow galaxies

and hunger in this nothingness
devouring all I must possess

in this event horizon where
not even light escapes my snare.

I'm "supermassive"
born to feed!

The universe
I'll supercede!

Beyond rank urban humming glut
entangled wires yank unplugged
swung stoplights segue signs to none
and roads break blacktop into dirt:

mountains expound

forests exhale

and you can
breathe

again.

When despair occludes the view
and tempests trample to deject
remember faith illuminates
and hidden angels interject.

To doubt, then darkness governs fears.
Entrust the light sets free and clears.

Revolution
unheard riffs
scorching chording
notes off cliffs

screeching howling
growling daze
emblematic phasing haze

amped rebel bent with songs to burn
experience nobody learns

your spangled voodoo angel cries
all along the purple wing
overflying crosstown
hey

six-was-nine red-hot house strings

bold manic freedoms made of sand

incendiary

contraband.

With fluid limbs we'd glide beside vibrato seas
their largo rumbling fumbling undulate swells
rejuvenating music hushed to lulls
beneath dull loads, relentless requisites.

Crescendos resurrect our lilting arts:
our tidal strides reviving moments rushed
from quivered glints of intermittent light
toward cresting cadenced depths of symphony

your winding wrists about me binding grace
to timeless steps inside our songful space
gyrating us from notes to toes around
in rhythms lifting toward majestic ground

while fingertips rehearse their slight ballet
across this waltz of arms, lithe tango legs
enclosing folding lending unbending to lean
you guide I follow abide we wallowing drum

conducting under backward over forth
with lyric eyes yielding unto melodies
turned measureless revels quelled once dance
depletes and silence sings sweet arias.

Some years too late to be the first
yet young enough to be the best
Amelia watched the airships waft
above the bustling London streets
past windmills, steeples, wooden domes
beyond the smokestacks, hills, and homes
and swore she'd pilot one someday
around her county then the world
fly further, faster, fearless, free
accompanied by Sir Stanley
her humble trusty furry friend.

Together they'd amaze, ascend
wing forward toward historic fame
that misses christened in her name
would navigate those sapphire skies
to celebrate and recognize
such dreamers steam us to believe
there's little we will not achieve
once we've the mettle, spirit, cheer
to voyage past where others steer,
arising from our aerodrome
to sail wherever we may roam.

The exit portal droned, rejecting all
admittance codes inside her enhanced eye,
but Eeev stood cool and wore a subtle smirk,
her silent android Knowledge mystified.

Monitions echoed fiercely far above:
"Your wonder paves a path to certain hell."

Temptations baiting chase past VR screens
suggested reddish blueish greens were not
exemplifying everything except
illusion's origin and terminus.

Perusing ruins never taught or spoken,
Eeev toured the detritus of wars before
ReeVers-2 Eeeden ever went online.
"Reality, at last," she sighed in awe.

As Knowledge surveyed every ragged inch,
Eeev only rued her prolonged ignorance.

"They locked us out," declared the metal voice.

"Returning?  No.  I understood my choice.
Against what?  Darkness.  Deference.  Despair.
Why live their lies when we could be aware?"

Extracted from an ancient residence
the ornamented spheric artifact
exuded science, spirit, music, art,
through involutions evanesced in time.
 
No end to speculations - why or when
or what intentions might have conjured this.
Not one among us could eliminate
a single theory from our growing lists:
 
some esoteric cipher of control ?
Aesthetics? Cosmos? Mathematics? Soul?

Brothers, cousins, uncles, dad
- that family I never had.

You standing close beside me here,
how glad this makes me daily, dear.

Nobody else divides our care:
we each receive the lion's share.

We need no deaths to congregate
or holidays to celebrate.

We reminisce, revel, embrace,
our household's warm inviting space

entertaining youthful glee
and kinship beyond ancestry.

On every channel, station, page,
bold headlines herald likely ends
to Earth by way of asteroid
they calculate will punctuate
our Cenozoic sentence as
a period come late through space
to terminate our human race.

But only you could do that well,
completing all my lines of thought
whenever words would fail my mind.
Now, past the moon, I start to find
some ironies within this fix,
when finally our love takes wing
there's small time left for us to sing.

Accelerating by the sun
on this mission most write off,
my last transmission beaming back
out toward a world hung by a thread.
All sorts of questions rush my head.
Oh, did I speak of love enough?
I concentrate, but, Lord, it's tough.

As sure these stars will watch me burn
and I must face my final turn,
I think of us again and learn
how fortunate we were to bond
in this cosmos grown beyond
all history and mystery.
Within this void, it's you I see.

My target rock grows dot to dash
and gauges say I'm good to crash.
Within me, nations, futures, pasts,
the billions wishing goodness lasts.
But most of all I carry you
and hope this bittersweet adieu
gets back to you and pulls you through.

About me, blazing blaring lights:
blue red sparkles recount nights
late fireworks ignite July.
How fast we danced then, you and I,
devoured life to gratify
that sense this never lasts too long
just like the lyrics of our song.

Lake Vague refused to still itself
when Princess Clara knelt to gaze,
for reasons streaming back nine years
and through a magic garden maze,
where two enamored strayed from love,
lost track of hours and then their way.

Their flight from darkness split them up
in search of exits while the day
lent sun to stride that labyrinth.

Young Clara found a wishing well
and cast a prayer to fly forth free.
A sculpted wizard slurred a spell,
and leafy walls collapsed as quick.
Afraid and worn, she left for light,
forgot Prince Vague lay trapped behind.

Her worries spurned, she turned from night,
when grievous gardens raged alive
and Vague survived by desperate deal.

Should she recall him, breathe his name,
would he reflect, return as real?

Umbra imitated stars.
Her likeness recognizer reaped
those socialites from magazines:
post-processed pics, the synthesized
and wholly faux, overtly off,
plus algorithmic masterworks:
imperfect bodies, eyes alive
with ray traced light not of this world.

Her software seemed to save no change,
though neural nets knew otherwise,
and visage shifted into glitch,
encoding visions into nulls,
deleting aspects, countenance,
reflecting errors in the source.
At first, it proved a cool defect:
reducing names to guessing games.

When avatars would not restore,
a crisis crept across the Web
as many feared, forgot, or wept
personas purged systemically.
A month, and it was very good
where mortals met in real life.
For those remaining virtual,
it became a kind of hell.