words

  • The clouds loom large like stallions

    Rearing against the sky’s spherical volume

    Fleeing the horizon

    Sometimes I feel it too

    This desire to escape the human mess

    All the overlapping voices

    Interwoven signals

    I’d rather not bear witness

    But

    I am bound to this

    Inhaling the same ancient molecules

    Waiting with heavy eyelids

    For everyone 

    To be quiet

    Just for a moment

    A breath

    But

    Not today

    Today I chain my heart to the stallions

    Slowly crossing the atmosphere

    I call to them

    But

    They can’t hear me

    Over everyone else

    All talking over one another

    To see who can be the loudest

    I let them win

    Another day perhaps

    2023sm

  • “Can I kick it?

    Yes you can. Can I kick it? Yes you can.”

    My six-year-old sings A Tribe Called Quest

    In the living room

    He stands 3 feet from the TV

    Playing Minecraft with resolute focus

    I am in awe of his spirit

    Yesterday we strolled the carnival

    At first the ride scared him

    The speed and increasing frequency 

    Of the centrifugal force in his immediate experience

    I calmly spoke to him

    It’s just a ride

    Daddy’s here

    Everything is lovely

    It’s just a ride

    All rides come to an end

    So too will this one

    But for now

    Enjoy the rotation

    Look up at the sky while you spin

    And then he loved it

    Darkness came

    The carnival lights moved through everything

    Little waves cutting across the universe

    In every direction

    So bright, so vivid

    You could almost hear their sound 

    Feel the intensity of so many light emitting diodes and incandescent bulbs

    The little warm center of my being

    The trapped larval occupant

    Absorbed all of it

    Soaking in its energy

    Growing against its chrysalis

    Waiting to break free

    To return to its origins

    The eternal cycle

    I smiled gently

    Lost in the euphoric haze

    And asked the cosmos 

    Can I kick it?

    It responded loudly, with ultimate certainty

    Yes, you can

    2023sm

  • Deleting

    Hidden in clusters of dark matter

    I can hear the universe whisper to me

    Sometimes it is scary

    And I feel like a lost child

    And then it is exhilarating

    I am surfing through the cosmic ocean

    I am no longer lost,

    I have found my true center

    Within

    Just beyond my reach.

    2023sm

  • Valence (Jenny)

    As we elicit these secret meanings into existence

    From existence

    In a psychophysiological loopback

    Hey

    Decipher this, decipher me for me

    With such casual grandeur 

    All my broken tracks and tangled wires

    Loose connections

    Impedance mismatches

    All but for your ability to do so

    In the flesh 

    While I waver and wallow and weather this

    And every preceding flurry of chaos

    That defines me to now,

    This present moment 

    This current revision

    Walk with me

    Down and through our neurological ruts

    Weave in the air before me some truth 

    That I am blind to without your eyes

    Illuminating the way

    To this surreptitious dominance

    Over the inner howling yammering catcalling

    Very small, very loud

    Voice

    Overwhelm it with the sounds we make

    2023sm

  • Ed

    Ed
    Where are you now
    Spread out before us
    In the cosmic wind

    The sound of your approach
    Lingers everywhere
    Keys jangling
    The cacophony of your laughter
    Heartbeat like a hummingbird

    Loss in the universal processor
    Your vacuum is felt daily
    Where are you now?

    With every breath,
    Every existential byte
    I miss your misanthropic voice
    The sterling chrome of your technique

    It didn’t have to be like this
    Brothers innumerable
    Idly trembling
    At the absence of your being

    Speak to us
    From whatever far off dimension
    You now inhabit
    Speak
    Speak
    So that we may listen

    2021sm

  • Worthy

    Daddy, the sun is up!
    My child chirps like a bird
    And I am blessed to reckon with a new day

    The light falls upon the contours of my form
    And I absorb the radiation with something between love and disdain
    Knowing that without the father star
    I would cease to be
    Yet longing for the cool dark recess of night

    Mother moon waxes and wanes sequentially
    And we orbit about our little lives
    In fluid superposition

    The children fight the night,
    Sullen at the surrender of the wakeful state
    Yet each morning the sun rises
    Imbuing us with life
    And they spring into our bedroom
    Announcing the star’s return
    And I am humbled by their energy

    We are worthy
    We are loved
    We deserve this

    2021sm

  • Crossings

    Initials written in the sand,
    Our hearts carved from the stellar nurseries
    Of the early universe,
    Its first breath
    My eyes wandered over the stars
    In their little gravity wells
    And I forever searched
    Their infinite crossings
    Until I found you

    2021sm

  • Radical existence

    I am here
    Listening
    Feeling
    Being

    Observing
    Accepting
    Releasing
    Swimming in gratitude

    I live
    Alive

    2021sm

  • As it is

    Stillness
    Elusively hides
    In the cracks and crevices
    Lining the basin
    Of my mind’s boundless rim

    Resting in the center
    I calmly watch my thoughts
    Float away from me
    Like streams

    Some flow as water
    Gently nurturing the ground
    Others rise, tangled together,
    Coming apart in the open space above
    Formulating like starling murmurations
    Gracefully existing

    I watch them pass on
    Into what other quadrants
    Will have them
    And gradually
    Without effort
    The stillness emerges
    And everything
    Is going to be alright
    Just being
    As it is

    2021sm

  • Insomnia eyes

    A vapor trail
    Forming in the dark glow
    Of the room’s electric haze

    Bumps and knocks sound lightly
    In the night’s omnipotence
    The blood pulsates rhythmically

    Sleep is elusive in the vesper
    A dull ringing in the chest cavity
    The hallway illuminates

    Someone is always awake
    Is it I
    Lumbering toward morning

    Or are we all sleeping in shifts
    Checking in on one another
    To ensure we’re not asleep

    2021sm