Shapes

Following in the dark mortar the blasted

gianted down ways of halls of nights of dust of bruises

shoring hard aboat beside the moonpath

sweeping scraps of shards of crumbs of broken

goodness and beams of gladness, so

sorrow jumped high

sorrow jumped low

madness dipped spoons into oh oh oh—delightful

and then now ever or even if because—

poor headless monster. Poor madam hoo hoo.

Seek ye not which is never

fall ye down which is sort of

jump ye high which is might stupid

stagger laughing

poor him! He died so lightly

poor me, I did cry so much for nothing

and now the bottom is still hard.

and never leaked much, just enough to—

one fell down, they said, and the little animals watched

one was born, they said, like an animal

who came here for a reason

wanted to live, interested

and willing to suffer

nothing is poor until it says so

nothing works until he makes room

scooping out the guts of his pretense

One solid afternoon he rented a cottage

on the banks of a river

sad river, flowing mightily, mighty dirty,

might loud highway running side by side... hmm.

Oh that river does lull me, at times, he said

dipping his toes in the water. Giant! Like me,

said the mermaid, exactly like him, touching toe to toe.

forever is a word about time but it has no time

said the man, slowly, tears dripping down the back of his throat

and forgive me, I’m crying about my story that I loved so.