The Performer

There is a platform that holds him high 
As the faceless crowd watches his every step. 
He wanders across this stage and parades in all kinds of costumes. 
He plays the clown who juggles flaming spears 
And when he stumbles, the people hiss and jeer. 
He has sung the operettas, sparing cacophonies 
And the audience will lend him their loudest cheers. 
He's played the leading roles with lengthy lines, 
A wholesome man reciting fallacies under the spotlight 
But when the make-up's rinsed off and the outfit's unzipped, 
All that's left is a man and his ordinary life 
Whose lips still echo with the voice of one who would exist.

Dramatix

I couldn't hear your footsteps as you walked past me, 
Nor the sounds of the exuberant children nearby 
And the laughter that followed after. 
Only did the increasing volume of my heart speed its way into my ears 
And the continuous battering of my eyelids, 
Reassuring myself you were really there. 
Fast as my heartbeats did time appear to brake 
With an exemption of the sudden movements of the sunlight on your face 
For vast shadows did evaporate 
When you were not too distant anymore. 
And as I stood there while your presence vanished past me, 
While the merry children kept their smiles wide awake 
Mine had gone away as well,
Unable to hear the faint echo of your footsteps 
Tracing a line I could not follow.

I still feel you sometimes
When I soak in the sunlight
That seeps in through the window
Hitting all the furniture in its way
I see your gray hairs glimmer
As you read the morning paper
And the black coffee staining every page
You put down on the table
For a while I hear nothing but your quiet
That fills every corner of the room
Like your thoughts are merely ghosts
Flying over my head
And then you clear your throat
Or switch a leg to cross
Or turn to me and smile a little
You say something softly, like
Good morning, or
Yes?,
Or nothing
You just smile.

I look at that same sunlight
Seeping through any window
And I'll soak in it for a while
It almost feels as if
Your arms are around me
You were always the warmest,
After all.

Only

Emerald eyes
I was thinking of your emerald eyes
I was thinking of dancing with you
Against the same tune
Unwrapping your dress until you spun into my arms, only
Only my body you'll wear
And when you think I'm merely breathing
I'll be breathing you in
I'll dig my fingers deep into your hips
Like I'm sculpting you, only
Only you're already perfect
I'll lie with you
Naked and brazen we'll be
Two hands locked, and two hands free
And in the morning
Your brown hairs will be all over my bed
And I'll only be thinking
Of your emerald eyes again.

That girl

Is she not the greatest
Cacophony,
The most incorrect riff in your masterpiece?
Is she not a misstep and a misfit,
A hop, skip, and a sorry
Off the flattest of all your sheets?
Is she not too morose
For any day you choose to smile
And extensively, incandescently happy
On your most wet and underwhelmed?
That one extra, operative syllable
In your most formally metered poetry?
The very last minute run
In your only pair of stockings?
The off-tune violin string?
The single pothole
You somehow managed to fall in?
The hangnail?
The loose thread?
The nagging voice inside your head?
Is she not
The most marvelous inconvenience?
The shadow in your almost
Perfectly shiny bubble?
Is she not a mistake?

Is she not?
Is she not what thrills you completely?

Sweet cherry wine

I've got one lonely soul
Bones a broken xylophone
Hold me so under control
Until you play one for me
Behind your frustrated eyes
I'm burning deeper into sin
You'll feel my twists around your tongue
I'll feel you taking me in
Can't let you stay for too long
Won't you just let me be
A pulsating note across your throat?
A lovely default for "long ago"s?
Look at me from where you are
I'll be your old jazz memory
Vinyl shine, sweet cherry wine
Keep me right before I leave

Sedation

Ellipsis and blank
Stop me right in my tracks
Under the yawning and laughs
I couldn't talk anymore
No one's looked at me that way
Moonlit spark like the day
Fingers graze over my skin
And I'm left paralyzed
I know you're angry at me
Think I'm foolish (oh, I am)
But I know you love it
Baby I know you love it
And you'll never catch me
Clenching my toes
When you're around