Restless Legs

the people you see
on the subway or in the
conference room or out
to dinner in a nearby town
who move their legs
up and down or
in and out or
jiggle them like
gregory hines on
broadway are doing
something secret that
is hard to admit
they
are comforting
themselves by
moving and pressing
their genitals with
their legs to feel
a little, little bit better

and with your pants on
you, my deep dark diner,
should look over your shoulder
and try it.

Feet of Fire

how can the
grass be green
on the other side
when my feet are
made of fire
how can the
soul and the spirit
deflect the grim
and sin of the
flesh when
we are bound in
broken bodies,
bruised and bent
battered and tattered
my tattoos don't
show on the outside
my tattoos don't
show on the outside
my tattoos show
that I'm not right
but bring back my
green grass to me,
for the hope is the
only thing that keeps
me from a fate like
david, swinging
from the rafters
on my patio
in the california sun.

The Unspoken Truths

I wish I could put into words the
unsaid feeling that lurks beneath
my heart and under my breath;

It's a weight like a dentist
pressing his latex-gloved
hand onto the roof of the mouth

and every time your step into the
room and I hear your voice, the
twisted knot loops over again

and pulls that much tighter,
like a tickle in the throat that
can't be staved with water or coughing

like a noose of cancer that spreads
from right beneath the surface -
a tumor where the heart used to be.

Numerology

Like the flashing green lights
on the top of the stove or
on the microwave oven
or in the dashboard of your automobile

we have to make small corrections to
our numbers, when the power goes out
when it's time to save daylight
when we want to be early

for me, I went to a small booth
in the parking lot of a Dollar General
where the lady asked me when
I was born and at what time and

she told me that I was here on
Earth to teach people and to
help people and to show
them how to write and to

right their wrongs and
sing their songs, side
by side by side,
besides she said I had

some karmic debt
that I stole in relationships
in my past lives and that now
I was here to pay

so I paid and I am
still paying and it
is all starting to make
a little sense.