Seduction
No-one looks at my arms any more
And says roll up those sleeves, I must
Use my tongue to follow one thing
To another and would you show me your
What-have-you. This is good however
Long it’s been because maybe I was
Once too willing to say, whatever,
Sure, if you think so. Which between us
Generated mostly boredom &c
And so has almost never been the best
Answer, though it’s also brought I confess
A few (not enough, in balance) interesting
If not always entirely satisfying
Moments in the short run.
Toward Winter
Stop solving. The perfect
Lives somewhere else. Here
Fall eats its way across the foothills,
Not cold yet, burning
The way the world tells me
Time is coming, red and cold
And fierce. On the other side,
The opposite. Shadows shrinking
And a sky so beautiful
I can’t look it in the eye.
History of Painting, Part X
He’s about to become
All about light. Limning
And glittering in its way. Not
The subject, the self,
Bearded in its dignity,
But the sun setting
The trees on fire behind him
So, like us, he’s lost in woods
He envisions. Are they
Inside him? Paint
Itself reflecting. What
Do we choose to see?
Put down shadow,
Dapple, the world we keep
Thinking we can know.