SANITARIUM

As last resort
Retreat to a rooftop
Soft hums & sunlight
Flickering in windows
Car horns radio blasts
Bus motors police sirens
Filtered through
a lonely prism
 
Our blue dome pricked
By a skyscraper tip

Wait for a familiar stranger
's telepathy
in B flat
boys back
from basketball
Joyful screaming gulps
Muffled in pavement

photo by Ryan McGinley





 

 

 

 

 

 

SUBWAY

Chrome eyes
gargoyled faces
pinned against 
the plexiglass

Reflections
and plastic seats

It's raining
on the old rain
But only damp
here underground

A transfer
and you're lost

I've been writing
this same thing
for years
Thinking it longer

I never get it 
down right

The turnstile
and skinny card

A long ago lost token

Thoughts
forever thought broken

INSOMNIA

I can't sleep
when you're not here
to keep me wide awake

WHITE T-SHIRT AND BLUE JEANS

Hopeless and haunted
That's how I want to look
In the sunlight
In the mirror of your eyes
That's the bed I made
And never slept in with you

It's still last night this morning
There's an infinite space
Between my thoughts and your face

A simple pose
An oblivious gesture
Hair all a mess
Pale complexion

Hopeless and haunted
That's how I look
Twisted in these sheets
White T-shirt and blue jeans
Thrown on the floor
As I wait for your body
To slip out the door


from Crowd Paintings
a book in collaboration with artist Donald Baechler