Alright vs. All Right

Alright vs. All Right

The sherbet sun had melted slow into a silver moon,

Where we met we left soaked in her mad monsoon.

 

I saw tears in her eyes I can’t describe,

Nor the smile she wore beneath;

She shed her shawl in the wailing wind

That cleaned the trees of leaves—

To get closer, to stay warmer.

She promised to love me as she breathes;

Both constantly and to live.

 

Have you seen the owls in skeleton homes

Hungry and wide-eyed in the fading night?

I watched them make peace

With the field mice until first light.

They starved to not fight.

 

I felt a feeling I can’t shed or describe;

I wanted to taste her teeth.

I wanted to slip between the ivory

And devour the tongue beneath.

 

Her skin glowed with unearthly light;

I knew it’d be alright but not all right.

And I knew the sleeping world slept entwined,

Feeling both alright and right.

 

I kissed the length of her jaw until

Our eyes met, nose-to-nose.

This goes as your breath blows:

Warm and for me to live.

Adaptation

Festooned in festering pride,

I met the swelling throng of people.

Where the barricades ended,

Lines of men reformed again.

 

I wiped the sweat out of my eyes.

“Sweat,” I swore to them dishonest.

And the buildings sagged under

The weight of the blue sky above us.

 

I took steps I didn’t know I knew;

One-step, two-step, three-step, paycheck.

Vis-à-vis, we’ll get ours.

First, and always first, they get theirs.

 

This doesn’t give choices, options,

As we put up our illegitimate dreams

For an orderly adoption.

We’re just not ready to care for them.

<p class="MsoNormal"style=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt”> 

Maybe it’ll grow up angry,

Find us at our future homes,

Exact their dangerously deadly revenge.

Lines of men will reform again.

Angels on the Move

I already know.

Can you explain it to yourself?

These are things always known but

Completely unexplainable.

 

We almost got the words out

Between the twin specters

Of building hope and decaying doubt,

But before we made the mistake of finding out

Your lips covered mine;

I made do without.

 

The faders moved in and out,

Outlining planes in the night sky.

From where we lay

They are angels on their way,

And I knew when they made it home,

There they’d stay.

 

There’s a burst of blinding light

When we bloom, you know,

That leaves our souls,

And the aftershocks leave us shaking,

Smiling, and warm.

 

I already know.

Can you explain it to yourself?  Or me?

The conversations of a lifetime

Can run their course through one little line,

If you find something within yourself

And give it to someone else—

Maybe you don’t need to explain it.