(March 6, 2014)
Diamond hard headache
you have a chemical in your left hand
and the door is to your right.
Pavement.
Take the pavement, quick.
Oh wrinkled earth,
do you feel my gentle journeys
across your skin?
I am the unfaithful sojourner,
who deepens the creases of grief
that guide your tears to the ocean.
Lamenting earth,
Do you quake for the dead I’ve buried
a few feet beneath your surface
or choke on blowing ashes?
Are you immune to mankind?
Have I been the cause of your tears
that fill the ocean with salt?
I traverse your land on rivers of fear
in search of a sea of fulfillment,
while others sail your oceans of doubt
to find terra firma.
We search for a remedy
until the search itself becomes a malady.
I’ve buried the dead 6 feet deep into your skin –
has this made you immune to mankind.
Replaying life
in the width of a road crack.
I found love in the Philippines
Laughed with Slavic sailors
Drank with Swedish shipbuilders
All in the Port of Inchon.
I became homesick on Rotnest island –
I felt the tempest of history
on a train to Heidelberg,
I saw women in burkas
doing zumba along the Persian Gulf.
I cried for him on a mountain.
I swallowed my soulmate whole in a caravanserai.
I forgave my father around a campfire,
I thought to write this
Here on the road –
I’m amazed at how vast
and hollow I am –
filled with nothing…
The universe follows me
on my wrist.
My time is up.
