Folded Up

but it makes me so sad, you know 

I'd rather be holding hands. The 

others have told me, don't hold back, 

hit them with every white knuckle, 

and let them bleed out, I'd rather 

be kissing your face. It hurts, you're 

killing me, and all I want to 

do is have that dance under the 

perfect wolf licking moon. And now 

I suppose every corner must 

be folded up, secretly put 

away somewhere. They told us, they 

told me, nothing lasts. After that 

you go back to darker dreaming, 

if you are lucky. If not, well, 

you know in your bones which bells are 

still ringing and which have lost their 

silvery will to make something 

beautiful crawl out of nothing 

more than the air and the ghosts of 

certain leaves. Now I'm on the path 

of  too many broken things, and 

walking with my twisted feet, my 

revolving head, looking for the 

red town where you used to live in 

a silent window with curtains.   

Bonus poems:

All you want is to sink(original first draft)

 

Into a mirror of lies. It's sick, man. You'd rather

Dig for treasure than make a beautiful thing happen, break

Your back, break your spirit over and over until there's

Nothing left to begin with again. All that gets you

Is a grinning skeleton for a friend, an unidentifiable worn

Stone singing like a ditch in the pouring rain at

The bottom of your favorite drinking glass. Any way you'll

 

Never return the favor. It's too late for all that

Pretty nonsense now. The best you can offer is a

Daily huff and puff on a broken trail. Could you

Still walk upright? I don't know. Not with that mirror

Smashed over your head like an oxen yoke. Shake off

The need for more strokes. You're getting old when you

Should be getting younger. The magic has been all pissed

 

Away like race horses on steroids. Like the cool old

Days of bookstores and basements, cigarettes and the 4am sun

Lifting its sleepy fingers off the dirty trash caught up

In the shaggy sheets like dead birds. All we need

Is a bit of the Beatle luck. But that movie

Seems like another lie gone bad. We had it all,

Brother, but their imaginations were nastier than ours. They used

 

Those bombs on themselves in order to get to us.

How crazy is that shit? The only true country is

The country of love, but you'll never get there the

Same way twice. And nobody ever believes your passport photo is you.

And you can have all the secret handshakes in the

World and still get met with only false mistrust. And you

Can declare yourself to be free, but the hands that

 

Surround you will eventually reach to your throat. Remember oh please

That favorite tender line from Joni, didn't it feel good?

I'm Sure it did. I know it did for me.

And things went over the cliffs after that. Even now

I hear the sirens, I hear the trains and the

Gassed up cars, I hear the come-ons and the music

Cranked up beyond belief like Jack Daniels through a thin straw.

 

I don't want you to blow away from me. How much more

Plain can I make this? It's not all bad news out there

As long as we can feel each other in here. I

Don't care if they think that is crap on a

Stick or not. They never cared for poetry any way.

Some of them made the choice to live among the

Boxed and buried blades of grass like moths. That's okay with me.

 

This poem says we're still alive in me. It's no religion. Don't

Let this song go to waste. Stay with you. Here.

If I could I'd press my fingertips up against yours.

What else? Maybe softly, maybe not. Things always get back

Around to you leaving somehow. That's not my lot in life. Now

If you will forgive me I must be going to

Meet the one who will give me back my proper name.

The Radish of Radiance

 

Is not necessarily

Gluten free. In the wrong hands

It could cause a war. These are

The things you must know if you

Are going to attempt to

Eat one. I don't make these things

Up. The golden one will sit

atop your head and make rude

sounds, if you don't know how to

whistle it to sleep. Radish 

for war, radish for peace, you

decide. I only wanted

to warn you that the taste is

somewhat tricky to behold-- 

on physical realms, so it's much

better to visit with a 

flamethrower in your wallet.