......The Poetry Of.
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Dave Wheeler ....................
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The House Is Still Standing
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The house is still standing ....................
After rocking waves of words ....................
We buried things in the back yard ....................
Like bones and truth to preserve ....................
The transient is no longer interesting ....................
But is ....................
Like wine or words ....................
The light is passed ....................
From each to next ....................
Roof top confessions ....................
Burn in their simplicity ....................
Sacramental water anoints the throats ....................
Of thirsty travelers ....................
We dance on swings and waves ....................
Spinning in wine and sacred flowers ....................
I want to become more pious ....................
But don't ....................
I want to sink into the depravity ....................
Of other peoples minds and my own ....................
And do ....................
Spitting rhythms and conversations ....................
Basking in all that is sinful or shameless ....................
But is neither ....................
I want to taste the labia
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Of your mind ....................
Sucking on ice cubes and beer at ....................
The incense altar ....................
Candle lit carcass of every day that has ever passed ....................
Or will ....................
I want to reach infinite wave form ....................
Perfection of chaos and singularity ....................
The moon is full on the lips ....................
Forceful ....................
Brightly shrieking tones of approval and ....................
Dismay ....................
I may come back to the ground ....................
One day ....................
But not this night or any ....................
Life soon ....................
This manic mayhem of colors ....................
Is pleasure ....................
Defined ....................
Colors of we dripping down mirrors ....................
In clumps of pigment and oil ....................
There is a cup at the edge of ....................
A table ....................
It is empty, fill it ....................
With sand or wine or beer ....................
Or sacred flowers ....................
Of hope or piety or innocence ....................
Or what ever you have to offer ....................
Spill it ....................
On the floors of our minds ....................
And smear it with fingers of tongues ....................
Swirl it in paisley wind blown patterns ....................
Of madness ....................
The clarity of madness becomes sanity ....................
All saints fall into hell pits of ....................
Tabasco pools ....................
I reach for insight ....................
You grab my hands ....................
Guide me along the guard rail of freeway traffic signs ....................
Pulsing and bleeding directions ....................
Only to the lookers ....................
We all are looking ....................
We all are seeking ....................
Madness or ....................
Clarity or ....................
Insight to guide us through darkened halls ....................
We burn double edged candles ....................
Gray matter is only ash here ....................
Until insight springs provide the lubrication ....................
Necessary for movement ....................
Movement is necessary ....................
Touch is necessary ....................
Touch me with clear thoughts of ....................
Madness ....................
I will kiss you deep in your heart ....................
Sucking the puss off a malevolent ....................
Corkscrew patter infection of ....................
No feeling or cruelty ....................
I will pull the nails ....................
You will become only stigmatic ....................
No longer crucified ....................
Free to move or stay ....................
Return the favor by listening ....................
Or telling ....................
We are truly in this together ....................
We are truly part of the same thing ....................
I feel waves crashing at my feet ....................
We fill the cup from many wells ....................
I love you ....................
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Black Eyed Susans
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Black Eyed Susans ....................
Move my pen ....................
To incessant ....................
Verse ....................
I am ....................
Three ....................
Nothing is clear or ....................
Vague ....................
All just is ....................
Blue busses vibrate ....................
My scull to awareness ....................
Of this now ....................
My surroundings ....................
Nothing is left but ....................
Vague scents ....................
Of what was ....................
I almost remember ....................
I almost feel ....................
Am ....................
In that place but ....................
What happened, nothing ....................
I don't know ....................
Have forgotten ....................
Wont allow myself ....................
To remember ....................
Black Eyed Susans ....................
Are the state flower of Maryland ....................
I was almost arrested ....................
For picking them ....................
I had a bunch of nearly one hundred ....................
From the side of the road ....................
The police officer told me ....................
The fine was one hundred dollars apiece ....................
I think he let me go because ....................
Any women worth a ten thousand dollar bunch of flowers ....................
Had to be special ....................
Nothing is clear as it ....................
Seems ....................
Nothing is clear ....................
Murky gray blueness ....................
Is my heart ....................
I almost ....................
Remember ....................
I can almost ....................
Taste the air ....................
Feel the rain or ....................
Dew or fog ....................
See the color of a shirt ....................
A pair of shorts ....................
Was that really me ....................
Or something else ....................
That preceded this ....................
Thing ....................
This man ....................
This life ....................
That is before you ....................
Before you is ....................
A collection of people ....................
That I have been ....................
Before you are ....................
All of the lips I have tasted ....................
Before you ....................
Is every face I have ever seen ....................
In passing or ....................
In the mirror ....................
I am a multitude ....................
In one frame ....................
One house ....................
One temple ....................
I pray to soak up ....................
The juice that is around ....................
Me ....................
Dripping down branches and ....................
Cave walls ....................
I paint ....................
With mango and charcoal ....................
I paint with eyes ....................
Filled with watching ....................
Filled with vision ....................
Filled, filled, filled ....................
I am three ....................
Inside this frame ....................
Somewhere ....................
I am ninety-three ....................
Somewhere but ....................
Maybe
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No where ....................
Non where ....................
I am lost ....................
In this now ....................
Not here or there but ....................
Now and ....................
When I almost find ....................
Myself ....................
Almost remember ....................
Being three or ....................
Something else ....................
Exactly this ....................
Exactly ....................
This ....................
Exactly and ....................
Black Eyed Susans ....................
Are drinks at the Preakness ....................
Pushing my pen ....................
Pushing my pen ....................
Pushing ....................
Pushing ....................
Pushing ....................
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All At Once
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Blind ....................
In simple terms ....................
Eyes degrade ....................
To conjured images, yet real ....................
Your smile like a schoolgirl ....................
The disbelief of your death face ....................
All moments are one ....................
In this instant, this now ....................
I am overwhelmed and in awe ....................
Your ghost or ....................
My ghost of you ....................
Haunts my kitchen and bathroom ....................
Your hands busily, nervously, beautifully ....................
Doing something ....................
Your turn to me, halfway ....................
Smiling ....................
Mouth moving ....................
Lips, teeth and tongue moving ....................
Manipulating air ....................
Handing my ears your thoughts ....................
On velvet pillows of breath ....................
We are in my car ....................
You rock back and forth in pain ....................
Breathing labored, chest tight ....................
"Hurry, baby" ....................
After you switch off the radio with your index finger ....................
At the door, when I arrived ....................
The first words leaping to my lips ....................
Are "you look beautiful" ....................
I stay mute and help you to the car ....................
A look comes to your struggling face ....................
Beautiful face as we drive toward the boulevard ....................
Shock; surprise then the word "muerto" ....................
(I die) ....................
With this surprised expression on your beautiful face ....................
"No, baby, we’ll be there in a few minutes" ....................
Beautiful blue eyes ....................
Dancing with mine ....................
A whisper some months earlier ....................
This now with your acute absence ....................
It is all some place no where ....................
It all is ....................
Isn't it, isn't it ....................
My hand rubs your back as I say the words ....................
"We're almost there, try to relax and focus on your breathing" ....................
I am in that back room ....................
The end of the maze pink room talking to the young cop ....................
He is treating me tenderly with his questions then ....................
Five hours after arriving I leave without you ....................
What's left of you in this world yet ....................
You are with me as I drive away ....................
I feel you in my ear ....................
Moving my bed with your breath ....................
As you sleep beside me ....................
I breathe you in like perfume ....................
We are at the bus stop ....................
Before you left for Colorado to get married and ....................
Bring your daughter to the states ....................
To complete your journey ....................
Instead your journey ends ....................
In the front seat of my car ....................
That surprised look on your beautiful face ....................
Eyes open, lips parted ....................
Looking…surprised ....................
Slapping you on the cheek I say ....................
"Stay with me baby, we’re almost there" ....................
I am standing with you at the edge of a canal ....................
In Venice Beach ....................
I set down the bags that I used as an excuse to ....................
Be with you for the first time alone ....................
Used to get you to leave the party to "help" me ....................
I set them down and say I have something ....................
Very important to tell you ....................
Set them down so that I can kiss you ....................
For the very first time ....................
I remember thinking then about the first time ....................
I had seen your face ....................
It was almost as close as the kiss ....................
In that cafe', neither of us looking ....................
We turned into one another, eye to eye ....................
Nose to nose ....................
You smiled, looked hard and said "Hello" ....................
We are talking ....................
It is that conversation ....................
Where I come clean ....................
I tell you the everything of my straight and true ....................
I tell you just as it is ....................
You know the truth of my words ....................
You understand ....................
I love you more ....................
We simply hold one another ....................
For a very long time ....................
I am back at my apartment, alone ....................
I hold a small silver vessel ....................
It holds a piece of dust ....................
A small piece of your dust ....................
I hear your voice just beyond the air ....................
Inside my ear ....................
Your laugh, your pleasure sound, your cry ....................
At once ....................
It is all here, in this now ....................
I feel a coming apart in ....................
The fabric of my concept of time ....................
A coming together of these frayed strands ....................
Into a new tapestry ....................
Of time and space ....................
All of the moments that have been ....................
Boiling in the soup of the universe ....................
Your eyes, the first time, every time ....................
Your lips ....................
Each word I heard you speak ....................
Every kiss ....................
Every climax we ever shared ....................
At once ....................
I feel a rush of all of the feelings that ....................
We have shared ....................
All of the truth ....................
We have known ....................
I feel this all ....................
In this now ....................
At once ....................
Everything ....................
At once ....................
All ....................
At once ....................
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