* amor vincit omnia *

Water’s Edge


I am not the ocean
nor the sand beside it.
I am not grasses rooted in a dune
to wave in gentle breezes or
thrash in violent storms.
I am not a warm tidal pool harboring
invisible creatures.
I am not a tiny burrowing crab
or the bird that scuttles after it
seeking a meal.
I am not a weathered clapboard house
watching the surf with window eyes.
I am not footprints washed away.
I am not a jetty of rock slick
on one side with green life.
I am not the wet carcass of a
prehistoric horseshoe crab
nor the seaweed wrapped around it.
I am the edge, the permeable boundary
the vanishing salt foam
thrust to shore, pulled back
to sea, air and water
fish spit, grit,
and magic.


8 September 2006

* amor vincit omnia *

Off Your Meds

I never know what
you’ll say to me because
sometimes you let
yourself run out
on purpose.

11 August 2006 #8

True Story

I went to a rib house
though I’m a vegetarian. I
ordered salad. The
jailbait waitress
never mentioned bacon bits
and they were real.

I braked to avoid a
damn squirrel. My right rear
hubcap flew off
and killed it anyway. Plus I
lost the hubcap.

I was at a poetry reading. It was
my turn at the mike
when the police came.

I’m not sure why these things happen.

28 July 2006

Productive Water

Tears swell my
throat and eyelids. They are
too precious to spill, so I
swallow them to the secret
spot of subconscious
squeezing. There, all tears
crystallize into nuggets which
later I regurgitate
as poetry.

12 August 2006 #9

Making Margarita

They lie on the counter,
these limes, and silently
remind me that you’ve left.

Twice now, you’ve squeezed
in my presence, mixed and
added ice, licked
salt from your beautiful
fingers without
slowing to show me
or talk me through doing it
myself because
you are impatient, so now
I cannot do it without
you. Did you
plan that?

Just looking at a lime now
brings me your face
furrowed in concentration above
the glass juicer. Better these
should shrivel here, or perhaps
I’ll juice them because
juice in a plastic
container will not
conjure memories of you, no
never.

11 July 2006 #7