sentence

sentence  (from the trial)

exhibit 9

to wake each day and believe its possibilities

a ship slipping its anchor to drift on uncharted seas

or to those mapped and hoped for destinies

not to who or what or where you are    on your knees

 

to know that the past would always be invited to parties

guests and ghosts gatecrashers with invitations in their pockets

a lock of hair a forgotten photograph memories hung in lockets

on rusty golden chains of futures around their necks    of certainties

 

to be yourself   sure, as many epiphanies

as you can take   but a life sentence in the cell of yourself

no remission no parole   enjoy the walls the ceiling

the floor the flaws   and the window that square of sky   a jar from which the light pours 

conspire

 

conspire (from the trial)

exhibit 8

upstairs

                I’ve been upstairs climbing

it’s always uphill through locked doors

through the hatch into that cluttered space

that shipwreck of our scuppered lives

a deep-sea diver in murky depths

fed on recycled oxygen shallow breaths

sorting out the past that didn’t pass go    the zero-

sum games and me the boot the black shoe

finding missing pieces that do not fit the puzzles

we put together nostalgia wrapped

in webs and dust the air thin and thick

with motes unsung notes from our songs   nuzzled

by polypoid fingers   the rich and the strange

the telling of the right and the wrongs

the tide’s wrath   slow erosion   the sea change

seen from beneath the waves through nacreous eyes

the weight of all that then buried full fathom five 

 

no flag flies and I return to the surface too soon 

now an astronaut on a windless weightless moon