Love Songs Book

Bud

Christmas night, my father said, "Jean,
you are so disloyal." But Bud said,
"No. Ethereal. Ethereal, but my friend.
And I, I got my prayer answered:
I died with my life around me."


Still Life, for Matisse

Light
old leaf spine
fish spine bone
green under-the-
ocean light
big gold fish my
new little father
only a boy
breathing on the window
COME ON OUT
you carry me I carry you
light wave after wave
swim cockatoo
green, blue.


The First Angel

Fat slippery angels,
two by two,
carrying sheaves of straw
to the graveyard,
leaning sheaves of straw
on the gravestones,
straw on the frost stones.

God's hands trembled when he
touched my head,
we are so much in love:
the new moon holding the old moon in her arms.

The first angel said, Write down this:
It is time to leave your past life, leave your plumb-line, your trowel,
your layers of habitation, your perfect finds-tray.

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