31 august

Imagining imagining

I step out, searching

(looking in means upclose)

chasing, replacing

what doesn’t work/ will do

the odds are even/ up

30 august

and on payday I don’t realize

even as the next-to-last leaves

given an extra day off

                                holiday

                                holidazy

I don’t know what to make of it

how to make it

the space to expand into

constricts restricts

a boa bowing out

(do-list doubt creeping in)

(winners also lose)

Retired from some stage

turned some page

and here I am/ out

                                and over

27 august

hunters will gather

still waters run

is this who

I am will

I do what

I can be

I live how

I see myself

as I turn

away toward

                                within

                                without

                                beyond

13 august

with this candle burning so bright

it’s hard to say which ends

are both

the light—so clear

who will not last the night?

all the day is ahead—!

(all the balanced aimed for)

(the broad shoulders/sleep no more)

12 august

Thanks so much for taking the time [she said]

I know

                [she said]                           

                                you don’t have a lot

                                of time for yourself…

a caramel glisten on the back of my tongue

the value of being understood

Not at all [I said]

My pleasure [I said]

but it was almost too much

a sickly sweet trickle as my teeth turned tense,

tasted rot

where once there was strength

how can we know [I wondered]

how others feel

how others draw the lines

and lay it out?

4 august

out loud I say

                                hope

and the word, released, rises

so many balloons

swooning over possible currents

disregarding actual present tenses

see the best?

There it was