My shadow
tall as trees
in the late afternoon light
my mind
short on thought
as another day ends
(D. James)
Monthly Archives: January 2009
raincycle
I want my life
to be like running water
flowing easily
down through
the cracks
and coming to rest
in a great natural pool
where the sun will shine
evaporating me up to the sky
becoming ominous clouds
then fall like rain
to begin again
(D. James)
Winter Beach, CA
raging sky
large distant clouds
like mountains
across the blue-green ocean
there’s that part
of the late afternoon
when we wish the day
would stop
take notice of itself
before descending
into another chilly night
(D. James)
what does it mean?
Up late
listening
to Hindi singers
Images of trains
and the rains
Send me
to sleep
with words
I do not understand
but the feeling
is there
(D. James)
this way and that
Thoughts
without discernible
patterns
scattered across
my mind
It’s a good thing
I don’t drive
based on my
feelings
(D. James)
I bite
spitting venom
out of fear
attacking
like a cornered
dog
to a threat
that is not there
unable
unwilling
to see any other
option
words meant
to cut
to hurt
to bleed you
all so you
won’t go away
or
to make you prove
what you say
(D. James)
I see you everywhere (and you and you and you)
Why is it
wherever I go
people look familiar
to me
Does it prove
we’re all related
Or that I see
things that aren’t really there
(D. James)
talk about the weather
The sunlight blinds
but you look anyway
reflecting
off the tabletops
creating an illusion
the gentlest
of winter afternoons
the violent dying light
pierces your eye
as a reminder
of summer
yet no matter
how hard you stare
you cannot make
the season change
nor the sun
shine less
(D. James)
power of an addiction
It is said
only the fallen
know the true depths
could you be
one of the rare ones
so often imagined?
Longer than any river
the emotional road we travel
More torturous
than your beauty
this lustful addiction
that can be
briefly assuaged
but never ever cured
And where
have the gods
that made you gone?
Is it true
you destroyed them
so there would be no equal?
I am a dark knight
sent on a failed errand
for a now dead king
riding through endless nights
searching for some
unexplainable something
that exists for a moment
then disappears
leaving only memories
and the faint tint
of lipstick on my glove
I need something beautiful
to destroy me
someone intelligent enough
to match me
I thought I heard you calling
(D. James)
somebody did something here
Broken glass
from some minor crime
strewn across the road
And someone won’t
be happy in the morning
(D. James)
where’d it go
Bourbon and cigarettes
late-night hookers
down dark alleys
What doesn’t kill me
costs more than
just money
Turning fantasy into reality
shaking with adrenaline
getting kicks from anticipation
feeling more powerful
than any man should
Someday
I’ll get off
this merry-go-round
but I can’t seem to find
“someday” on the calendar
Maybe it falls on
February 30th
two-thousand-and-never
(D. James)
what do I know?
(for Ian A.)
What if the old man
isn’t wandering or lonely
What if he has
all the answers
and knows it’s pointless
to say anything
Now who do you
feel sorry for?
(D. James)
the four corners of love and belonging
See the tall girl
standing on the corner
a cell phone to her ear
Oblivious to the traffic
rushing by
a boy
talking in her ear
He tells her
“I love you”
but she doesn’t
believe it
She turns west
and hears him say
he can’t live without her
She turns east
and he says
please don’t leave
When she looks down
at the ground
is that south?
Up at the sky
north?
He keeps talking
pleading
wheedling
whining
but she stopped listening
long ago
Behind dark sunglasses
she quints at the bright sunlight
of a Los Angeles afternoon
It’s after she throws the phone
as it skips along the hot tar
and is run over a few times
she realizes
her mistake all along
has been looking for love
from without instead of
from within
(D. James)
