WILD ASIAN ORCHID
(for you)


I'd like to put it on my table.
Where it is closer
but soon
it will die there.

It is much better
to spend the time
and the effort
and slight inconvenience
to travel

in whatever way
to see it alive
blooming
where it is happy
where it is healthy
where it will last

where it belongs.

THE FILE


She says that she has a file on me
-unlike the one I used to get free
from her, her's had teeth
that can still make me bleed

Sometimes
Sometimes
when I been out drinking
on a bar crawl
or walking
slower than reality
-or so it seems

Or some windy night
long past midnight
going home
I'll hear a newspaper roll
down the street
and I'll start to think

maybe it's a page
that was able to escape
from that mysterious file on me
A file that I've never even seen

It clouds my heart and sometimes I feel
that no matter what I do, she'll
have a hold on me
cause she's
got a file on me

WALLS


She's going to call again
I can feel it
Just like back East
how you can feel it in the air
when it's going to rain
and all of the leaves
on the money tree
turn inside out

The walls
want to do the money tree on me
but I keep watching them
hard
they're whining
Just one wall"
No
The one with the window and the door-
No!
it's not a big wall-
No!!
Just a little corner?
No!!!
How about the baseboard behind you?
NO!!!
Please?
NO!!!!

The phone rings
startles me
breaks my concentration
I pick up the phone
that I forget is connected to the wall
as they curl and turn
-laughing.

ADMINISTER


She says:
I don't drink anymore
and I only smoke once in a while
I see the kids at least once a month
Remember the car that we thought had caught
on fire out in the desert?
Sold it.
I work as an administrator now.
Moved into a place with more light.
Got married.

---figures.

REQUIEM


Light milks forth from a hole in the basement
I hear you clog down the stairs
walk through the light
and disappear
into the sound of a closing door

close my eyes
sleep
again
the door scrapes open
and I imagine
you in the light
of when you once believed
in me
and we slept together
sharing the same dream

Now off
More out of fear of my anger
than courtesy
up the steps
more unsure than before

Hesitant Requiem
postpartum thuds
of a wooden chamber
of an empty gun