All the dark hours everywhere repairs

and rights the hearts & tongues of men

and makes the cheerful dawn—

the safe place in a blanket burrow

hissing in ears and nibbling wet lips

smoothing eyebrows and a stroke up the back of the knee,

licking the nape of the neck and tickling the tense

breast with fluttering eyelid, flitting

light fingers on thin chest skin,

feeling the arteries tangle the hollow groin,

arching the back backward, swinging sidewise,

bending forward, dangling on all fours.

the bit tongue and trembling ankle,

joined palms and twined legs,

the tilted chin and beat cry,

hunched shoulders and a throb in the belly,

teeth swim in loose tongues, with toes curled.

eyes snapped shut, and quick breath.

hair all tangled together.

the radio that was never turned off.

the record soundlessly spinning.

the half-closed door swinging on its hinges.

the cigarette that burned out.

the melon seeds spit on the floor.

the mixed fluids drying on the body.

the light left on in the other room.

the blankets all thrown on the floor and the birds

cheeping in the east.

the mouth full of grapes and the bodies like loose leaves.

the quieted hearts, passive caress, a quick exchange

of glances with eyes then closed again,

the first sunlight hitting the shades.

A DRY DAY JUST BEFORE THE RAINY SEASON

DRUNK last night

drunk the night before

talking and shouting and laughing, maybe

I should’ve been home reading—

“all right don’t leave me alone—

do something with me then!”

the landlady’s son

heard through a back wall window.

Sunday morning, november, plenty of birds

a pair of red-shafted flickers

on the peach tree

stretch wings

showing the white-flash back

linnets crack seeds at the feed tray.

Not too hung over—

I suppose I’ll get drunk tonight.

one year: from rain to wistaria,

apricot blossoms, all night singing,

sleeping on the floor,

off to work in the Sierra

back in august

cool fog, dryness,

leaves on the fruit trees fall.

Soon the rain starts again.

smell of burning leaves.

orange berries, red berries a

sudden jump cat

—I know him—

bee rattles in a flower

this warm sober day

I wonder what I said to everybody

ANOTHER FOR THE SAME

a cut reed floating

a sort of Lady Komachi

wiser than me

the best of your beauty

always hidden, yū      

“a glow of red leaves in dark woods”

in your gray eyes.

look at me stranger

I’ve been hungry, alone, cold,

but not lonely

must I be lonely with you?

Danae to sunlight, starlight,

wind, snuffing it on every

high hill

of the mind.

you really are going nowhere

I wish I was going with you.

to rock, to space

—I cannot shake this love of mine

which is so much less

than yours.

THIS TOKYO

Peace, war, religion,

Revolution, will not help.

This horror seeds in the agile

Thumb and greedy little brain

That learned to catch bananas