Embarrassed Valentine

Stuck in the crotch
of a dead branch
the black eviscerated
ball of an old pomegranate
wedged passion between
further falling and
resurrection
the cat glares at me
as if to say
it’s not polite to stare
we resume our
individual tasks
me my scratching
her her hair

Star's Valentine

In a gust of feelings
a star and a hanging
basket of geraniums 
a street in red November
listening to mockingbirds
from such a few damp
clues I could still
reconstruct you
the sneaky way leaves
fall when you’re not looking
or when you are the birds
poop on the flowers
the inescapable strangeness
we are to one another
and to all beings
love has so far claimed

Evolutionary Valentine

They say Christ had
his first human stage
in a time just before
our big bang and then
on our first earth
became an angel
on second earth
an archangel and then
on the third an Archai
a First Beginning
and now in our time
on this fourth earth
an Exusiai a Former
of Forms entering again
briefly a human stage
for his brother Lucifer’s
sake a rescue operation
with a certain outcome
and limited duration
after which we too
on the fifth earth
will become angels
and continue on like him

Leftover Valentine

Snails leftover from
another earth
resurface briefly
in desert rains
crunchy underfoot
not that much ice-
grayer than eggshells
but a little wad
of snot tucked
into a unicorn horn
that travels and can
feel the first touch
of spring leaving its
smeared kiss and
cum on everything 

Child's Valentine

Putti genii cherubim
it’s there in their eyes
children beholding death
create a custom size
balance is not mediocrity
faces of the so-called dead
a constant surprise
so mothering is made
curtains opening on clouds
she arrives in haste
unstoppable the terror
to be faced but really
she’s just kneading bread
while her two hungry
toddlers watch carefully
but nothing’s said

Pied Valentine

We pretend not
to notice one another
the pied cat strolling
like the landlord
through my tiny yard
where daily I sit
doggedly writing down
whatever comes along
not that I stare at
every face or ass
or sashaying cat
but I do let a few
crazy things carry
me along it’s true
beauty rules still
even the cat sniffs
the flowers the sun
relaxes on the lawn
only my thoughts
stumble on

Thanksgiving Valentine

Who bears
and burnishes
my attention
my feet in
your sun my
head in some
shady places
so I resemble
the sky have
that permission
to mirror back
and moon
for you

Retrograde Valentine

So we come back
to reality without us
back to ourselves
after being taken up
by some other reality
after being abandoned
by it we come back
to the logic of death
so what say the stumps
floating decapitated
dreams the last
purple flowers

Piss Valentine

Listening to
my pee hitting
the water
the cadence
and bright
intonation
of it all
I can hear
languages
eagerly returning
to nitrogen
and the odor
of asparagus
and roses
with a smile

Betrayal Valentine

The surprising inability
to discern the borderline
from the true princess
of virtue as if
one was disguised
in a beautiful body
and the other disguised
as an overweight ya-ya
what didn’t you get
O warrior of the light
refusing that your youth
be taken from you
once you had the power
to put it right

 

Light Valentine

That we not
take too lightly
one another love
departs as if you
could depend on
someone else
what that life
would feel like

Morning Valentine

Opportunists of the sun
like me a chair or choir
among the grasses who
would also rather walk away
but do become filled
receptacles of light finally
as if one were to keep
the out-takes and discard
the masterpiece morning is
inspiring how many cities
that still must spread
and die if all
we need is leaves
to climb the sky

Private Religion Valentine

On the day Jack
Gilbert died which
was just yesterday
and will always seem
like just yesterday
I finally get around
in my dotage it
happens to reading
the visionary poems
of Bunny Lang
on the high say-so
of Frank O’Hara
that first great
negro poet among
the black poets
of Martinique
who still smoked
and drank heavily
and Bunny laughed
when she caught
Jack walking over
the water toward her
all three born within
a year or two of one
another and within
a few brief marvelous
miles now gone

Late and Slow Valentine

When will we
simply accept
that until hunger
is satisfied and
a warm safe home
is provided
for everyone
and reasonably
good mental
and physical
health is assured
for everyone
only if these
three are present
can we begin
to speak of human
beings acting in

a human way

until then it’s

about money

not women or men

Sung Valentine

Here temperature is speed
as in all the other worlds
we remember occupying
how in the stone the
flower replays its flowing
all color being molten
when in the streets and
fields we hear ourselves
come from darkness
to break our words on
one another’s shoulders
plowing on circumspectly
toward that dawn
we glimpse as you

First Vintage Valentine

This cup is
the thinking
that goes on
after awareness
brings it
puts it down
on the table
but the drink
itself is eager
to be tasted
after its long journey
from the sun
so deftly suffused
with light and
calm it can leave
and enter time
at will while we
fused to bodies
await our death
as the end of all

Electoral Valentine

How many more naïve
realists are left
spiritual materialists
church-going slave-holders
self-flattering sociopaths
for one morning
to get through
only small minds
want small government
let’s have big government
big self-government
big enough to include
and take care of us all

Scene of the Valentine

Undertaker ants
with infinitesimal care
yet hurriedly after me
file across the mesa
of the stepping-stone
toward the crushed
body of the snail
whose shell looks
like a totaled car
the silvery insides
which it spilled
dried to crusty
diamonds in the
sun and all
the ants can do
is chase their
tiny shadows
back and forth
unable to lift it
or to leave

Returning Valentine

It can be as
indecisively
precise as this
Admiral butterfly’s
admirably careful
momentary landings
waverings but
during the night
that dream named
hurricane devastated
me and now disloyally
in morning light
joy to see
even pieces of me
returning

Numerological Valentine

If we count one year
for every hundred
the world just turned
20 years old since
the light came into it
which goes a long way
toward illuminating
our situation mindful
what one knew at 20
and the damage done
but now the black and
white cat steps daintily
through the wet grass
and our whole future
as they say lays spread
out gingerly before us

Silent Valentine

After the garbage
truck raging
minotaur barges
through the alley
and the dust
settles on the dew-
glittery grass
the trees turn over
grayer wiser
back to sleep
and no one now
not silent
will ever be as
silent as a canoe
of clouds
just arriving
out of the blue
this desert
once a shore
this body
once a boy’s