CHINASKI
Write. Fix. Post.
Friday, November 28, 2014
MOUNTAIN PASS, 5 A.M. (Fifth/final draft)
Of darkness and where
Does the light hide in the morning
Before it peeks out from the
Ridiculous clouds?
Silly me, he thinks. Is this
What transition means?
He watches the moon set over
The hills as he walks,
Sees the sun rising in the east.
It is not yet day, so
He strolls on
Tongue-tied and lost,
Giving most of his attention
To the slight, invisible sounds
And the purple,
Lengthening shade.
MOUNTAIN PASS, 5 A.M. (Third draft)
of darkness and where
does the light hide in the morning
before it peeks out from the
ridiculous clouds.
Look at me,he thinks.
This is what transition means:
He sees the moon setting over
the hills as he walks,
the sun about
to rise in the east.
It is not yet day, so
He strolls on
(tongue-tied and lost),
paying attention mostly
to the slight, invisible sounds
and to the purple,
lengthening shadows
MOUNTAIN PASS, 5 A.M. (First draft/one instant fix)
Thursday, November 27, 2014
STONES
the gap-toothed
girl sits by
the great lake,
her sweatered arms
hugging herself
against the cold.
Sometimes
I envision the two
of us
beneath the moon
and stars, the sun
and rain, even in
the driving now,
and we are looking
out across the water,
laughing our fool
asses off, the two
of us
skipping stone after
stone, one for
the luck of just being
there and
one for each
of our
dying dreams.
SOME OF THE BIBLE'S GREATEST HITS
In the beginning
a man and a woman
have a snack
and think, "oh, god,
what have we done?"
and their sons invent
homocide
while Abraham's hand
wavers over Isaac,
moses juggles two
tablets as he
climbs down from
the mount,
and Noah counts
the tortoises
on the Lido deck.
Joseph wears
a multi-colored
coat that ends
up Off-Broadway
while Samson gets
his haircut by
a vixen. Solomon
is wise, Job has it
bad, and David
is king, although he
does some naughty
things to get there.
In the second act,
there is a star
and a virgin
and a confused carpenter
and John the Baptist's
head
on a platter
but before that,
there is a humble
man who speaks of peace
and gives the world
his outstretched
arms, the very ones
they took and nailed
to a hateful, wooden world.
THIS POEM, RIGHT HERE
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
STRAWBERRIES IN THE SNOW
And if a strawberry in the snow
was a gift between us
it might mean we'd answered
our own questions, discovered
an infinity, and found
the red-throated sustenance
we've searched so
long for. Watch now,
as I hold the crimson fruit
at the wet edges of our lips
and see how it sings
against the whiteness of
another pure-hearted winter.