You there in your blue-velvet crib-
bell, cork, screws, and silver keys�
I wink and sigh at you, as if at a baby.
I make an intangible something
out of coordination of tongue and fingers,
persistent lips, breathing gut, and pulsing throat.
kmb 10/01
Succumbing to a fierce cooling
and drama immeasurable, I
sank into your billowy biceps
like a heap of nerveless meat.
Upon your pectoral pillow,
I tried to sleep or cry,
but could not.
kmb 01/02
Lunchlady,
have you resigned your life
to that stool and that cash register
even as the halls bounce
with books and futures?
Lunchlady,
even as the racket of youthful babble
assails your stony ears,
thank you for saying,
"Have a nice day."
kmb 12/01
I scrape my knees on love's stairway,
and still I insist on climbing
to the faint whisper of a lip to lip,
to the sweet undulation of synchronized inhale and exhale,
to the whirling of a dizzying eye-lock,
to the jello-jointed surrender of a bed sheet grab,
but most of all,
to a knowing that is knowing complete.
kmb 12/01
Maddening-
the thawing of winter legs
as the pretty springtime boys
line up their
tights on diamonds
and their ringlets flap
in lilac breezes
mingled with the
sweet sun sweltering cologne
of man sweat.
kmb 10/01
Words are the bones and muscles
of the body of some truth.
The commas and dashes just hang on
like pretty fingernails
or globs of green snot.
kmb 10/01
From the harbor of undigested oranges
I heard Happy Birthday
sliding down a mountain.
It was clumsy like
a foot slipping in kazoo-rain.
A sideways foot is always good
for orange-stomping.
kmb 06/29/00
Grotesque canker quakes
on my slippery face.
The mirror narrows and
pink caterpillars grow
up my heaving belly.
Recycled hair ropes
grip my neck.
I try to cover it all
with one finger,
but my skin ripples.
kmb 02/24/00
