Stories of Demise

Stories of demise
         glue me down
                 and in darkness bind me.

Rich jewel of refracted life
         incalculably myriad
         sparkling hues we cannot see
         cannot think of
         forms beyond measure:

                  they have slipt grasp
                  stumbled into shadow
                  deeper than eons
                  razed for palm oil
                  not even recorded in sand.

Still, our gaze strays not,
         from precious mirror, we who
                  long to cleave to water's smile
                  beauty we have learned to treasure most:
                                            smooth curve of cheek
                                            white tooth
                                            green eye.

Though tongues speak ceaseless signals:
         wings, warning stripes,
         beaks, claw-tipped fox print
         babbling raven
         oral history of the ant
                   recorded in elaborations on
                   four protein theme.

We deafen our ears
                  hear only song of our single lip.
         They could be cutting to the quick,
         They could be master piece.

Can't make us listen
                  get them off my sound stage.
         only secret code I want to know
                  is one that blares my fame.

Flight Delay

In kangaroo room, bitter
     black raven gnaws   gullet
     fizz of indulgence
Pilot thanks still kindle – my sole
     conversation in the bustling port.

My dry sleek lux to sit alone
     with words
     in tap house
Good bad happy sad: Svabhava Shuddha.

In corrugated travel bardo
     electric crickets creak
     glass aisles witness
     ceaseless ingest,
     muffle twang
     fillibust the boarding time.

Some people stretch plenty canvas
     for tattoos
This day, like closing a chapter
     haunts my possibilities.

Amniotic Ocean

King of Universe
          wrapt in fame
          fame beyond the whirling
                    milky star rivers
           studded with jewelled
                     hopes and fears
                     of one thousand billion
            star systems circling.

Within your veins,
            rivers of light
                       sparkling on an effervescent
                                     pool
                       mirroring night's black
                                      traversed
                       by phosphor gliders
                            silver striders
                       riding surface tension
             in the liquid sphere of
                       life assembling,
                       centralizing within
             spine's hollow
where conscious electricity
              rises through fontanelle
                       emerging as a crimson Goddess.

Mandala Offerings

Precious Teacher, please accept
               this silver mirror, filled with shining sky.
Precious Teacher, please accept
               these climbing cliffs
               sharpened by the pearled teeth of ice.
               These outstretched wings
                              quartz and granite
                              circling round the planet.

Precious Teacher, please accept
               majestic cobalt mountain
               summit soaring o'er the clouds
               crown of stars sparkling
               in the rippled pool of heaven.

Please accept this turquoise dawn
               golden prairie
               coral canyon
               emerald forest washed by rain.

Please accept these azure isles,
               with beaches strewn in
               lapis grains of sand.

Also, two, these isles of spice,
               with fields ablaze
               in pink and yellow blossoms.

Please enjoy the cinnamon orchards
               the lands of tangerine and plum.

Please accept the jade archipelago
               the kingdom of the frosted moon.

Precious Teacher, please accept
               this fragrant peak
               forested in sandalwood,
               cedar and persimmon.

Please accept this tree of life,
               whose every branch and
               leaf and fruit and flower
               heals a different sorrow.

Please accept this tawny herd
                of buffalo, who frolic in
                a butter cup filled meadow.

Please accept these shallow lakes,
                where ripened boughs
                of wild rice
                overfill our baskets.

Precious Teacher, please accept
                this golden 8-spoked wheel;
                this rainbow coloured jewel;
                this queen of elegance;
                this wise and able servant;
                the wrinkled trunk
                                and living tusks
                                of this majestic elephant;
                this wind-blown mane
                                of appaloosa;
                embroidered wings and crown upon
                                sleeved shoulders of this warrior,
                                sharp, crisp and clean;
                this vase of cloisonné
                                that's filled to brim
                                with diamonds and rubies.

Now, here to greet you from the dawn
                comes a graceful Lady,
                clothed in sky blue raiments.

Now, here to greet you from the summer
                comes a Lady clothed in saffron,
                bearing flower garlands.

Now, here to greet you from the dusk
                comes a crimson Lady
                singing songs both sweet and soft.

Now, here to greet you from the winter
                comes a Lady in winged slippers
                dancing on an ion cloud.

Now, here to greet you from the garden
                comes a Lady clothed in petals
                offering magnolia.

Now, here to greet you from the desert
                comes a Lady holding feathers
                fanning fragrant clouds of smoke.

Now, here to greet you from the Autumn
                comes a tartan Lady,
                her lanterns burning brightly.

Now, here to greet you from the Spring
                comes a Lady fresh as dew
                offering elixirs.

Precious Teacher, please accept
                our nearest star,
                filling space with light.

Please accept this full, unblemished
                moon of night,
                shining in one thousand million lakes.

Please accept this parasol
                ornamented with
                the eight auspicious symbols.

Please accept this flag of triumph
                proclaiming fearless Truth
                throughout the ten directions.

Nuclear Waiting Medicine Area

Just let me look long down exit hall
                  unstirred.
                  flanked in red stripes.
                  walls calling calling.

I fall down the trap door
                  of my hissing ears
I drink the wavelength
                  of fluorescent mirror,
sharpening red trigram of radiation.

Peel down by bark & bone
                  lapse my body groan
                  fork it open, release the steam
                  unyarn me
                  peel away my shawl of stories
                  shake the etch-a-sketch
                  cart away the bed of gliding crickets.

Stop that flitting rattle wheeling
                  rub the graphite clean.
                 
                  Just let me breathe.

Minto Food Court

Below grade, the under story
           perfumes roasted rye
           slab of sizzling meat
           carbs of Manhattan
           green glo Gunea boys
           down nil one to Alleman
                          (in driving down pour)
           chipotle ketchup
                          slithers long my tongue
                          lapping round tender molars.

That quest of right future
           forgot by mushrooms
            diced in egg
             by New York man's man
              from Africa
               wielding bacon machéte.
           Down under Ottawa
           where plastic forks
           lift another cheerful heap
                            of thigh fodder.

And cubes above us gather somber selves
                            double clicking now 'til noon.

Birds of Sea

Quelling swell
           licks these soft stones
                    dressed in green feathers
                                     white shawls
                    swallowing my head
                                     in enzyme soup
                                     that digested
                                     mind of gossip
                                     amniotic brine
                                     has melted down my spine
                                     leaving patient heap of dust
                                     awaiting Autumn's deluge.

Shuffling sea
Scatters bristles of the
                    hoarse heron    grunt.
Sponges up the spilt song
                    of a Himalayan tune.

Beneath this cloud of pine shade gnats,
                    mind seeks to latch
                    a thread of unfinished business
                    lowering barbed hooks
                    to snare a knot of misery.

                    But, reeling back,
                    the line unwinds
                    leaving gulls
                    to weave a quilt of sky.