Do Birds Sing Before a Storm?

don't they know
that a feather trembles
for only one heartbeat
in a hurricane
before being consumed
by the hungry wind?

don't they know
that the same breeze
which caresses trees
and whispers through leaves
will strip flesh
and shatter bone?

Frail Love

Our troubles turned the sun away.
Blind night flies in slow, on cold wings,
Comes to roost and waits, a vulture.

Even meteors find their rest in time,
Shattering, unmourned,
In places where no-one hears.

Baggage

Yes, these are mine. They belong to myself
But not my whole self - for part, you see,
Was too drunk to fly, and in a stupor
Gift-wrapped my heart for a person in need of one.

I packed them all, checked them all,
Threw out the heaviness I wished to leave behind,
The torturous dreams and masochistic hopes,
The unspoken words: I cannot carry them.

No, they have not been out of my sight
Which is more than I can say for perspective
And reason, which I lost in a flood of unreality,
And in search of which I go - there, now, today.

I carry nothing prohibited, nothing dangerous,
Not the arrows of Eros, yanked from my chest,
Nor the poisoned dress that I intended to...
Only the dulled edges of corroded things.

'Follow Your Heart'

Untitled

you sigh

a stay of execution
just the sound you make
as you reload your gun

and me

watching the seconds tick by
wondering

when will the clock stop
what time will it be
when you finally kill me