I live to hear your voice.
Succulent speech
like yours
is more beauty
than this violent self
can bear.
*
Rickety sun does the laundry.
Bread baked fresh each day.
The living wash their faces,
then they wash their hands.
Meanwhile, down in the basement,
the furnace clicks and purrs.
*
The price of randomness
is having to live there.
We deserve to know what we want.
Though the world is out of control,
it is good to inhabit it
like warm butter--
flowing between barren moments,
melting in the nick of time.
*
You are precious -- now
that you are nothing.
Eat, sleep, and dig deep.
You have been rescued,
face it, from this sold world.
Do not throw away what
you could not find again.
Be on guard the rest of your life:
protect that little light
burning in your heart.
*
Dress your wound
with love,
not violence.
Gently, pick your love
off the street.
Care for it slow.
Caress each strand.
A flower is one thing
no man can make.
(1998)
