a haiku

death stalks in the sun
but where shadows prowl the night
a healer's eyes gleam

over a classmate's shoulder

the girl looking at me
(from the desktop of the computer in front of me)
is looking into my eyes.
she is not looking into his eyes--
he sits in front of me--
he is looking at himself
in the picture with her.

her hand is on his hand
is on her hip. his hand
touches his hand, too: his
other one, the one excitedly
pressing her body into his side.

is see his for a moment as he rearranges programs;
"Discovering the Content of Morality"
he types at the top of a document.

the face is excited, too--
the one in the picture--
he stares at me as if admiring himself,
chest out, jutting chin, self-satisfaction
in smile undisguised.

she--she almost is looking over her shoulder.
she is looking in the mirror too--
she's not exactly sure what she's seeing.
she is not admiring herself, off balance,
breasts squished in underneath his armpits
her free hand has grabbed his
for the balance of a breath
waiting for something to happen.
her eyes, her smile, are grasping too
quietly spidering about for what to do next
while his cheekbone like freighter
blowzing into port bumps up against her forehead,
grinning at whatever he lies ahead, in sight.

that freighter is running aground on little furrows,
going where her smile has not.

i think she's thinking about the two fingers
sprinting through the little demilitarized zone:
the gap between her fashionable blue jeans
and the robin's egg hem of her shirt,
riding just a little high under his other hand,
finger fingering hem, thumb excitedly
whispering and waving from her bra strap.


all her life she's been told
'this is what you've always wanted'.
he's thinking the same thing.

ship wreck

ship wreck

i wanted to be more than
me--
i will not be bitter
just empty--
i wanted to be more than me
and that i guess was folly--
folly mine, i own it--

but folly is painful.
empty folly doubly so

and even fools dreamed dreams
beyond the messes and traps of their own making
of beauty for ugly hearts

dreamed of grace

still i hope