Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Jonah

I don't remember you being this tall
I don't remember you knowing so much
I don't remember you understanding this world
Sometimes I wish you didn't

I remember you being this brave
I remember you making me laugh this much
I remember you being this full of love
Sometimes all I do is remember

Sometimes I can't believe you're real
Sometimes I don't know what I did so right
Sometimes I look at you
And all the words I've spent my life accumulating fail me

It was a night like this that I held you
And you and I were floating alone in a sea of stars
It was a night like this I made my promise
And you just slept


I don't remember you being this tall
I don't remember you running so far
But I remember my heart bursting one night
It's never stopped once since then

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Kaia

Ninja Turtle with an air guitar
Incredible Hulk in a matchbox car
Singing Rude waving sword in the air
Grinning eyes behind a curtain of hair

Lion heart, impossible face
Monkey dinosaur flying into space
Bounce off ceilings, crash through walls
Throw yourself at life, human cannonball

Blazing love
Soaring voice
Don't ever stop

The End of the World


Tonight I drove to the end of the world

Where a dying sun gave way

To hell-ghost fog

And phantom trees stood in judgment on us

As the breath of dragons closed upon our town

And this ashtray apocalypse hangs silent in the sky

Layla

In stars and satellites it's written
Carved on desert rocks and sung
By hidden voices at breaking dawn
That I've known you forever
And I only just caught up

Layla Bear-Eyes, noon-day smile
Cloudstruck dreamer with arms upstretched
Twirling dancer on silky seas
Jump to me now and promise
You won't grow

Stay a while your hand in mine, Layla Bear-Eyes
Diamond heart in moon-kissed face
Your life my neverending song

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

If I Were Marvin Gaye

If I were Marvin Gaye
And you were Diana Ross
I'd take you in my arms
And kiss you in that sort of awkward, unpleasant way that people kiss sometimes, you know like where your teeth bang against each other?

We'd run along a street, hand in hand
Singing love songs to each other
And also possibly songs only marginally connected to the subject, like What's Going On, which although featuring a slight love-related theme, is more about a universal concept of fraternal love than the romantic and sexual feelings which I would wish to express to you, although it's an excellent song, really.

We would climb the highest mountain
A big, icy mountain
Where Lex Luthor lives
In a castle
I would use my magical Marvin Gaye-Ray to penetrate his lair
And you would stab him with your mystical Diana Ross machete
And we'd celebrate with an adequately cooked chicken.

If I were Marvin Gaye
And you were Diana Ross,
I'd spend all day serenading you with my smooth vocal stylings, and you would clap and laugh and drift away and occasionally ask whether that one was actually Otis Redding.

And I'd tell you to shut up and slap you because honestly I have a severe alcohol problem that I just won't get help for.
Which explains this whole poem.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Final Hugs

Grab the kids for final hugs
The little drugs
You found
In a bigger town
In a hygienic hotel
Last time you stayed
Was the last time you prayed
And the sound
Wasn't loud
But that time
Isn't this time
And that town wasn't this town
And the number you called
Rang out 
The moment you caught sight
In the middle of the night
Of the little drugs
But remember
The final hugs.