the desert father and the dancing girl

i have come, this time, anointed with oil

and petals pouring from my painted palms i am

a swaying censer dripping sweet myrrh

rocking to the rhythm of your salvation-song

when i swing side to side the perfume grows stronger

a billowing haze, a spiral dance i am 

washed in the blood that pulses between us 

the riptide that churns the sparkling sea

with the somnambulance of circling swallows 

i move and i mirror with no effort at all 

and when day turns to night-time i am 

still firewalking and feeling that at any moment i’ll fall

but like leaning into the breeze passing by

your gaze holds me upright between earth and sky i am 

the blooming desert, unfurled by your light

you have shown me your secrets, now i show you mine

cereus

the first thing i saw when i opened my eyes

was a cereus blooming like a fist unclenched 

it was crawling with emerald scarabs i watched them 

encircle the stamen with talons i could feel 

them around my ribs 

the rest of the walk into the labyrinth

towards the center 

and the soon to be queen

the little one enshrouded with ancient lace

egyptian eyeliner and gold leaf lightning

waiting wingless but hovering high

guarded by geishas and gargoyle knights

i have journeyed to Her armed 

with a sharpened machete and an alabaster jar

fascinated eyes fixed on two black crows above me 

carving crescents into the smoky air 

waxing and waning and trapeezing together 

to pass a pearl between oilslicked beaks

at night the jungle of angel’s trumpets

draws open the heavy and pale-perfumed curtain

that i have come to curl up beneath be corroded and

turned into mud just

another girl given up

generously to Her 

but when She closes my eyes everything becomes water

and i’m always looking down at the mosaic floor

submerged steles revealing unread 

fortunes and dead men’s bones until

daytime is illu-mined two hours before dawn

when with the tide i rise fingers dripping and dragging 

myself over dry earth 

towards Her

baby's breath

at six months old my father baptized me himself in lake michigan

He let go of me to see if I could swim


and elicited some instinct lost neither with 
evolution nor the placenta
somehow i knew not to breathe in


as i sank to the bottom of that craggy lake floor

i did not ask for company
 

down in the belly of that gray greasy lake


amongst the zebra mussels and the buoys and the beer cans

i was a nowhere man in no man’s land


then with one hairy-knuckled hand


He plucked me from the foamy waves


 where i had begun to belong

queen of angels

I wish upon the waxing moon

that my beloved finds me soon 

and that quickly comes the hour

of our rapturous encounter,

but for now I’ll wait and weave

a tapestry out of my dreams

and with every strand of thread

birth the visions from my head, 

my hands slowly vivifying

angels - strange and terrifying

but equipped with certain charms,

talismans against all harm.

Micha, Gabri, Raphael,

names invoked by Isabel,

are blessed and dressed and sanctified

like apples of a lover’s eye.

Now, I send my seraphic sons 

on a quest for holy love,

transform them into troubadours

who dance across the lonely moors 

as I continue to create

to fill the time, this long delay

before the old earth becomes new.

I watch empires fall and wait for you.

the gentle lion 

i saw him one morning

emerge from his cave, come into the sun

and stand at the crossroads with eyes turned above

i was on my way to mass, so then on my knees

my prayers were now for protection and peace

sacred heart save me, let me stay free

but, oh, the wheel kept turning around me

and i ran into him walking 

down the dark side of the street

and in that moment i let myself be 

captured in the jaws of the lion who speaks 

in verses from my favorite poetry 

at dawn, he carried me up from the sea

holding me gently between his teeth 

despite his delicacy i wanted to be 

devoured by the lion entirely 

anima sola

fire and music fill my darkened room 

as i spend my sleepless nights longing for you

the hot air lies heavy as my heart howls low

but the south wind comes calling - and suddenly i know

i must get up and go out baring perfume and charms

i must transfix my mouth with a mantra for mars

and wander thru alleys with no moon to guide me 

no comfort, no more constellations for scrying

i sought him, i sought him, but i could not find him

the streets blackened my feet, but i did not mind it 

i was kicking up the dust dancing through the grey

silently spinning as i continued to pray

but i feel you, hear you, taste you on the breeze

and concede that i no longer care about peace

prelude 

wander with me through sunken gardens, opulent

 and overgrown of my own design

let open hands find flesh 

of peaches suspended beside 

the moon, winking at us through heavy lidded leaves

everything shadowed and shining 

like animal eyes 

i want you to see me in this nocturnal light

rub my skin with rich soil and let it be 

the final veil between you and i 

And the jasmine grows wherever we go 

in places it never has been seen before

and i think to myself that this might be a sign

of good things to come 

as i wonder and sigh

while i’m climbing my tower 

and leaving you behind