drawing with charcoal

Seething and sizzles
with intermittent sparks,

This dawn cracks
its sharp end

Making wake
a current state of fray

Today
may bring light

By ignition
cauterized by the heart.



Painting by Alphonse Asselbergs (1839-1916), 'Around a Fire in the Forest', in Public Domain. 

Heft

Balance may never be explained
in a constant way.
Sentences have periods,
stories are many series of scenes
that never end.

When we insist on showing someone else,
the way it is, the way we see it
changes inevitably
somewhere between pointing and looking.

There is always more to see.
Obviously,
there is no way to stay
in equilibrium for an eternity.

At least we both must hold on
to something
that seems worth
mentioning.


Artwork by Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) in the [Public domain].

Weather Fact or Friction

Thunderstorms can generate wind that is capable of developing additional thunderstorms up to 100 miles away.
Ants carry greater weight upon the fate of the planet than all of the elephants.
There is only one cheetah, genetically. They are all copycats.
All tortoiseshell cats are female.
A tortoise is a turtle, but a turtle is not a tortoise.
All mammals have hair, including marine mammals.
If a butterfly lands on you, like a kiss it has a lingering effect.
Kissing is a form of devouring one another.
Eating your words causes indigestion.
Our narrow color spectrum is a coded labeling system,
nevermind the claims of reds or whites or
fermentation of green and browns,
we eagerly ingest our poisons like medicines. Only death is harmless.
So many are starving but none are taking a place at the table or saying
a word of Grace.
Anyway,
Escape and Utopia are not the equivalents of Apathy and Atlantis.
Artificial Intelligence demonstrates that competence can be performed without comprehension.
When we tried playing God, saving the Earth, selling one-way tickets to Heaven and the Moon,
Time traveling, age rewinding, and portraying ourselves to be all-powerful we found ourselves-weak to resist, irresistible, gullible, and addicted to more than just the levers and
Controls.
Not knowing Best, but collecting alternate facts and delegating the feelings
of incompetence to all Others, we have been told two Truths and a Lie.
Fires spread in the mess-hall, millions of cooks vacated the kitchen, all of their pants aflame,
an acrid vapor left in the wake of Epochs echoing on wax-filled ears.
From the top-down, the ice spreads, plates are stacked and we are still spinning.
The soul never stays in one spot. Heat, like religion, is always seeking converts.
We are all preoccupied, we were born busy and off-balance, running to stay up-
Right.
Our big three-pound brains burn 33o calories per day.
The brain does not recover the same way other muscles do.
Magic is the ten days it takes for a flesh wound to heal. The Big Bang is still happening.
Hindsight is too far behind current, foresight is double vision doubled, the current is always moving, perspective is in every angle, adjective.
It was short and sweet.



Artwork by Edward Penfield (1866-1925), Calendar cover c. 1896 in Public Domain. 

316 million tons: Our weight on the world

Deadweight
Feels heavier
Without a light source

Emitting and casting off more than
Darkness which regenerates
On itself
Like a quiet tumor
Reaching

Look at Atlas,
His flexed muscles
Atop his torso
Showing his amassed
Strength and Dilemmas,
Symbolic

The woman is rounded
Into fetal position
Cradling her empty
Gut, where lead linings
Rust

She must endure
the pulseless womb
Internally,
Empty

He will never feel this weight
Carried
in her pit, shriveling up
Potential
Against will

She will take on more

Despite this moment
Wedged under a
Ticking clock

Like counting down
Our rock planet teeters
Without her brace

It would be wise of man to
Expect the Fall.



Painting by Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905), 'Sister Emily sleeping' c. 1848 in Public Domain. 

Ex-ist

I am
feeling myself,
finally

Sinking
in-
to

This
warm pool of,
light
easily blood or

Life-like.


Painting by John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902), 'Figure in Sunlight' (Artists wife) c. 1890-1900 in [Public domain].

(w)hole sentences

This practice 
does not make perfection
but a percentage
lingers with something special.

There are notes everywhere
like atoms of crumpled 
origami sound making the shape
of scribble.

Misaligned,
a cacophony
anyone can blow or bang, shout and wail,
I am trying to make some music
but I cannot flesh out
the transition.

I was always fondest of shoes,
Like endings.

I wonder, while I look at all the
scattered pieces, 
amble across the landscape
of my desk like deer pathways
is why I cannot seem to finish...


Artwork by Hans Holbein (1497-1543), 'Studies of the hands of Erasmus of Rotterdam' in [Public domain].

Shifts

Today
I will
write
paint, read and make marks
in space
empty of purpose.

Tonight
I may
Sleep
In trust
A soul
Is given another wake.

Painting by Rogier van der Weyden [Public domain], 'Saint Luke drawing the Virgin',  c. 1435 in Public Domain.