I’m hearing noises through the wall
pipes moaning in despair
the fragile call of an ancient ballast
I’m hearing shadows and footsteps drift
like closed doors

the running water cold and metallic
a sound so constant and unaffected like
someone out there is needing something
someone is hearing the sound of moments
washed away into a pool
unaffected and free
somewhere out there is another part of me
running like that water down a steel trunk
separate yet entwined
in the machinery of night

its all a part of the whole
joy
liquid in its freedom
a longing for a future
water
its stars and constellations
deliverance

All boys can dance
even from grief
hovering in joy
kneeling
loving many
not one,
posing questions,
rhyming songs.
They undo vast worlds:
xenon yearly zeniths

In the dark where the wind whistles
and the bushes blister with sounds
standing on still ground
with no face to show and no eyes to see
just silence
alone with you

in the sky lay stars in a shroud
the dark oblivion of beauty
and the beating pulse of night
with your eyes glistening
two stars
beat like a heart

All the beautiful women are wounded
and sitting on trains going somewhere
billowing through the air or down a mountain road
swerving and swirling down some slope
I said
All the beautiful women have changed into their ugly dresses
sitting alone on doorsteps with a cigarette
staring in a clear ivory mirror with shapes effervescent
bless their hearts and struggle
may we one day go with them warming those curbs
take them with us and maybe have them take us with them.
may we find one like a new stone
may we find one without looking or have her find us
even while those wheels are spinning and the smoke is still rising
even when she’s running down a spiral
a zig zag of beauty
caught
with bare hands
I said
All the beautiful women have sang their songs
finished those verses alone and pulled the curtains shut
to a still-rising billow of applause
to sighs and eyes closed in joy
empty houses
and now all thats left is the ring of those notes
the memory of a melody and the resonating truth of their disappearance