At Night Stars Forget

At Night Stars Forget

“Two years of shells and bombs—a man won’t peel that off as easy as a sock.” All Quiet on the Western Front-- Erich Maria Remarque

I.

Tonight the wine flag caught the sunset
Under the dog stag and the tortured willow

The birds are singing now, no they are weeping.

Tonight the flag draped the coffin of the man in his chair
That buried himself in doubt and tribute. Like the
Sergeant said, he was food for worms

My Purple Heart, my Silver Star.
It is the mettle of you that magnetizes me.

It is not the lone loon now, but penguins moving off in
Pairs.

You, alone in a room.


Tonight the sun coughed a somber stag
And you were there in detachment
Like a bomb masked by burlap
Like the monks bell,
Secret, and plosive among the
City streets



II.

Folded in Concordance
A loud silence
And our hearing
A courtroom of gavels pounding degrees

Runes and Runes spiked double through like miracles
Flattened into a hoax.

Did you ever see Highlights?

In the tree, a tennis racket
Under the boot, a brush
The hills had slippers
The eyes silver stars

My highlight was chocolate martini in a kiss --
In the tongue was a promise
In the lips, a tree
Under the skin, hydraulics
The hills had milk
The tongue swirled light like cosmic glass





III.

In the silence of the refrigerator
Om

It comes to me that I am late
That it is late
That a planted seed is trouble at this age

I want it more that it is
You
Shrapnel,
A million dollars
A just gavel meting time

Runes and Runes spiked double through like lives
Fixed into a weight
This helix




IV.

In the wait I wept and sung
Wept and prayed,
Sat silent in a flattened box and hoped for you.
Everyday the Coalition Casualties
A little Owen, a small Sassoon.

My Highlight was hope
Which is different than coats or shelters,
Gas, over 3 bucks a gallon now, even with the war.




V.



I want you raw and inside me
Like shrapnel bearing itself to the surface of my thighs
Enter me like books
Behind the monk’s bell
Secret linen and lore scratched from jute
Touch me like a gold rune among reeds.





VI.

I heard you fire your gun today-
After your walk and the Oxycodone,
Remember nothing except the stars.

The whole blast should remind us of
The power to swim to other islands
Even our own.


Fuck the war
MRE, IED, QRF, XYZ


In the wait I wept and sung
Wept and prayed—
It was swimming, swimming in time this distance
In an age
Of ruin and rune