tandem

what likely started
as a gesture
of spontaneous sentimentality—
the quick smooth
clasp of hands
as the plane
accelerates to launch—
evolved
into a meaningful metaphor
of deliberate companionship
through random seatings
we reached
across an aisle
over a seat back
oblivious
of the improbable security
of flesh and bone
within the larger context
of hurtling steel
aerodynamics
and physics
strange esoteric concepts
in which we blithely trust
our hands a pledge
or at least a reassurance
to each other
and the world
if it cares to notice:
whither thou goest. . .

this trip
I fly solo
the pilot puts the pedal down
I reach instinctively
compulsively
lovingly
always
for you

July 2007

raw

I just put you down
maybe 3 minutes ago
barely time
to walk downstairs
leave a message for your mom
(a report of a great day,
a perfect day)
and start prepping
red curry
and now
I am overwrought
cutting raw chicken
in the kitchen
and weeping
sobbing
chest heaving
at what I am powerless
—obviously—
to contain
when I married
I fancied
I had escaped
that raw bitter pain
of giving away my heart
for the last time
but you—
41 pounds
41 inches
of pure kinetic energy
have found a spare key
and I—
an apparent grown man
am completely undone
I can no more explain it
than I could have chosen you
my precious love
or your mother
my first love
of which you
are a blinding reflection.

July 2007

dependence day

we the people
have had enough
of independence
of treatises
on liberty
on wealth
of enumerating rights
this bill is too great
we are weighed down
by freedom
in all its worst forms
we believed the lies—
that the works of our hands
would be enough
that the love of one person
would satisfy the heart
that a minimum balance
would maximize our joy
that the fruit of our labor
was meant to be stored
that looking around us
and calling things “mine”
would prove the rightness
would vindicate
this separation
of King and State
meanwhile the mystery
the glory
of a King
mad with passion
for His people
His scattered nation
this mystery
the very Kingdom itself
hidden in a seed
hidden in the ground
complete
fully realized
hard at work
beneath our feet
in your land
and mine
we depend
on this seed
on the fruition
of its simple, holy
wholly unobserved work

tread on me
crush this grape
all of us
and make new wine
that will flow
down from the mountains
refreshing all
with glad
independent
interdependent
and—most of all—
dependent hearts

July 2007