For Nora, a Prequel

Robot apartments!

I am a robot.

My little brain is filled with silly nonsense

You can ask me anything

I will know the Answer.

I have the Answers.

In the traffic to Seattle

you asked me about 16th century lute music,

and I felt ashamed when I knew its history

I had to explain myself and my knowledge

(Juilliard)

And you show me off to your friends!

I read wikipedias every day so that I won't disappoint,

I never want you to be ashamed of me.

when I can't quench your thirst for useless knowledge;

there's a fear in your eyes when I say:

I don't know

so I'll study and pray that the words

will never cross my lips again

And I read encyclopedias till my

brain leaks out my eyes

and gray matter will splash your converse

and that will be the end of Us.

-08/07

found poem: "Howl"

0808: The Origin of Infection: Patient Zero

my feet are losing feeling!

stare! hard! at my telephone!

in deep concentration

willing myself! willing myself telepathy! will YOU telepathy!

to tell you will you! just! call me! you unreliable BASTARD!

Its been two! long! bloody cold! days

since I kissed your face!

-08/07

Unsung Wartime Romance

You were kind

for a time

after empty pavement pounding

battles

I epically stomped through

and over you

You were kind for a time,

granting freedoms greater

than those you took away:

a home,

a bed,

a place to rest my head.

You were kind for a time,

allowing me

the knit of the needle

a pink yarn suture

to tie my bloodied heart.

You were kind,

for a time.

And in the space of a breath,

took the knife

from your well-tailored ankle boot,

slid it between my ribs

and smiled a goodbye

from behind.

And all I can think

among these paralleled walls

is how for a time,

you were kind,

and rainkissed my face

under the overpass,

heated my nights

and picknicked steampunk effervescence.

You were kind for a time,

and I played the fool,

unwilling to see;

you were meant to be

a spun-sugar sweetness

lying soothing on the tongue,

and I on the playground,

ate a mouthful of dirt.

The Loop

there is a strange freedom

in moments of idleness:

watching time pass with

disregard

and the nothing you did today

should have been Something,

but it wasn't.

-081208

Finale

In a faraway now,
I am sleepless for you.
Waiting at a French door balcony,
trying on
my bridal woes
one last time.

In a faraway now,
it is you calling at one a.m.,
so different in every way.
You are dark, dark
darker, my halfling,
darker than she.

Fingering a ring finger
in the near now
empty where a weight
should be.
Faraway I am a beast
on wing,
all tangled snarls
and water retention
and too much snow
has closed the airport,
so my maid of honor
will never appear.

In a faraway now,
I am lost in smells
the present cannot recollect.
In a faraway now,
three days until
the happiest winter morning.

In a near now,
a distant me pleads
guilty,
if only you'd come
and bring the faraway
near.

In a close now,
in closing now,
three days
and my finger is free.

Crush

hey you golden guru beer drunk god
of skin and bone and body fat
you are beautiful
and I want to swill your body
among kelp strands and
under a calloused sky
I want to drink the depth of you
until my belly bursts
and keep you under strange stone light
among poisonflower petals
too deep to reach the night

Sunset

That was the place
where I first kissed your face
among barricade broken and wanting
and this was the lie
that we threw up to the sky
as our fathers sat worried and waiting

and I was so young
had no need for anyone
the rebel flag burning and waving
and you were so old
when you found his love gone cold
your sacrifice wasted in warning

and I held you close
as the cinders touched your toes
among city blocks blasted and curving
and we'd come so far
that they all asked who we are
so we told them wavelength and war

because we have run out of steam
and the giant robot's just become a dream
and I wake in Whitefall alone
but I remember things before we go
and I know

I know

That this is the place
where I first will kiss your face
while the bombs fall and hail to the city
and I will be the lie
God puts up in the sky
to lure you away from that corner

and you will be the star
that drives me from this car
a heartbeat waiting for a dream
and we will be the lie
God puts up in the sky
as a reminder to love beyond your means