it's just not black and white...



On Language

I.

       After us,     the Flood
And whatever
      Useless words
Hang from my mouth
Unpardoned
      By my inability to express          a    single     idea

Investments & Returns
Like some banker
Or how your eyes
    Make me want to tear through your skin
Because desire aches
    In all places

Still
The world moves in curves
And I study your shoulders     and back
Consumed by nothing else

    After us,     the Flood
And I may be damned for thinking it
But your eyes
Oh, your eyes
     Dance across the entire width of my imagination

Antique birth
To antique tongue -
    I have yet to express a       single idea

Will you hang me
   From my mouth
With the very words
I am letting go of?
       because of lifetimes of misinterpretation?

When my lungs are heavy
I sing
When desires shake me down
I write
But all the while
     I desperately try to speak
To tame the animals that wrestle thoughfromareason

After me, you     and
After you, the Flood
Because
   There is something permanent in the temporary
Even if every single word begins to fail me

On language and other impossibilities -
Let me speak freely...


II.

When there is no point to center around
           there is no geometry, no shapes, no theory, no evolution
                       no lines, no connections, no depth and no width
I have lost a certain
Something
Along the way to school

When houses catch fire
Outside what is inside
Reality unmasks fantasy

Words are the geometry of the mouth
Unpriced, inadequate
Desperately trying to lay shapes across an ear

I fear the Flood of lost intentions
Second guesses
Houses on fire
And the inside looking out

Of course,
   None of this matters
To a house on fire

There are no brave alphabets
Or thoughts to express
Just shapeless, formless geometry

       And I can't chase geometry forever
Away, because
The mind comes before the heart before the body
       And I don't want to be a fool

The house is on fire
The curtains are burning
The beds are aflame
The circle keeps turning
Me off
And on
And off
And on
And off
And on
And off
And on and on and on and on and on...

III.

You love an idea
        Infinite touches in dark places
An unguarded treasure
        And other ones too

The laws are
     Without teeth
Legless
     Unable to outrun
     Even a necessity

Dressed in the city's
White light
     You love an idea
That never is

I called for your retreat
     In every sleep
A guarded treasure
Without maps or legends

A fable
To carry us into
    The white nights
Of servitude
Of error
Of guilt

New terror drills
   its way inside
The city walls
Tonight
   In the white lights
Of my fable

You love an idea
       And hands clutching your throat
With nerve
       And I am and am not that man...

IV.

Leapt from
Bed to bed
Without considering
The mess left

My name
Is a heavy name
And is burying me
Beneath it

Never stopped
Or thought
For a second
Which direction
Anything is spinning

I have abandoned
Reason
For no reason
Just
Like that

Is it too late
To stop fate
From fading?

The city of thought trails
Is sleeping tonight
And every night
Until the mind catches the body

Leapt from bed to bed
       From debt to debt
Without once considering
Who was going to collect