The Turning Gem

Having Dined with Banshees

Tenderness

intends imperceptibility

proportional to violence

touched

its absence 

glass

importance 

past 

say the mystics from their deep palaces.

Introverted bone-like elegance 

dresses every thinker 

in light silk sincerity

souls and violins 

drooling inconsistencies 

we’ve come to understand as faith.

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The Second Lives of Child Actors

Remember that guy

what’s his name – the one

with the muscles and the hair – doesn’t

look so good these days, I’m told – we’ve

gotta survive being young to get old

enough to feel

free and alive again – then question why

the famous ones are somehow supposed to

be different.

Then the rest of us get sad about learning

too quickly

and forgetting how precious we used to be;

how only the movies we watched as kids

make us feel

the ways we wished we felt back then –

now

with fewer muscles and less hair

we’re angry – unlike

Charlie in the film.

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Quilt

I want to be where we can see

The stars

– endlessness

sailing –

Light too old to comprehend

Soon

We’ll have only pictures.