Cross-post from war_poetry:

At The End of the WorldHere, at the end of the world ( Read more... )

All my life
I have resented
umbrellas:
middle child
defying the rain,
seeing rainbows
in the parachutes of grey
that collapse over our heads
on rainy days,

I skip in the shiny streets
hearing the songs in the tires,
and loving the sound
of the rain.

Long before I surrendered
to my fate,
I surrendered
to the rain -a fugue by Bach ( Read more... )

Alcestis on the Poetry CircuitThe best slave ( Read more... )

The Girl in the Mirror
From 'Half-Lives'Throwing away my youth on duty ( Read more... )

Now, moving in, cartons on the floor,
the radio playing to bare walls,
picture hooks left stranded
in the unsoiled squares where paintings were,
and something reminding us
this is like all other moving days;
finding the dirty ends of someone else’s life,
hair fallen in the sink, a peach pit,
and burned-out matches in the corner;
things not preserved, yet ( Read more... )

Unable to bear
the uncertainty
of the future,
we consulted seers,
mediums, stock market gurus,
psychics who promised
happiness on this
or another planet,
astrologists of love,
seekers of the Holy Grail.

Looking for certainty
we asked for promises,
lover’s knots, pledges, rings,
certificates, deeds of ownership,
when it was always enough
to let your hand
pass over ( Read more... )

Here, at the end of the world ( Read more... )

1. Beware of the man who denounces ambition ( Read more... )

I envy men who can yearn ( Read more... )

The Critics

Because she was clamped in the vise of herself
because she was numb
because words moved slowly as glaciers
because they flowed from her mouth like wine
because she was angry
& knotted her hair
& wore sand in her bra
because she had written herself into a corner
& could not get out
because she had painted the sun on her ceiling
& then got burned
( Read more... )