At 4 a.m.

isn't it awfully late to ask why are you not doing your homework
it must be awkward in school but you can't just stay in bed and
pretend it doesn't matter what kind of life do you want to have
I hear myself and it isn't pretty not the kind of thing I sleep through
what if I couldn't get out of bed turn on the light turn up the heat
that would be a pickle what would I do with my mind at 4 a.m.

Perfect Bliss

do you know does it show
where I've been what seen
can do have read enjoyed
consumed in perfect bliss

words in other languages
composers up the kazoo
numbers frivolous sports
never perfect still trying

no it's too late now good
is good enough knowing
its own reward art travel
too much hope any more

Lovely

I should have said yes
coffee with the cheerful elementary school ladies would have been fun
how else will I ever know them
no thank you and the moment passes
remember the default answer is yes
that would be lovely

Like This

my documents have been modified many times
moves cast changes intentions understandings
missed gained grew shrank practiced dreamed
learned something measureless in its meaning

write me down like this

How Hard

what I said still counts
I meant it at the time so
thought through troughs
pay attention if you can

I know how hard it is
to grok what matters
as you come and go on
changing exponentially

we are the same world
transfigured around us
this moment sums up
all we were becoming

Nothing More

if driving counts I've done but no
it gets you somewhere that's not
enough since place has meaning
only if you think it does I don't

so many negatives add nothing
more than knees hands touch
serious conversation a jumble
fewer years than known before

if that were it I would already
be here now I am as if I hadn't
gone chickens waiting house
warm glowing welcome chair

Happy Accident

as human is enough so do
some years less than other
imposing dead expectance
what will solve everything

the key turns the meaning
finally revealed rises like
stop-motion roses smoky
light like happy accident

others bring distant cities
fly in briefly live with us
colder than realized being
punctuate our pacific timea

Significant Figures

I feel I must one or more considering the odds
either or not present for gradual usage degrees

a yawn a laugh an earlier bedtime not required
eventual wretchedness and waste now or later

somebody else told what should be jazz music
forgets manners at peril of indecisive siblings

the whole story bored me silly boy shut down
significant figures in a field of alternate being

Sleep On

time-space clear for what possible
clean floors pillow comfort warm
nap on a cold rainy afternoon set
phone at thirty minutes then what

sleep on what years what loving
might have been earlier or later
as if art leaves any mark except
experience documenta or scars

search out every time happened
discretely jerks or pauses who is
counting remembering who was
there before the black curtain fell

What Else

if not journals then a memoir
if not poetry then prose if not
a play then a novel if not fact
fiction what else can there be