A Lonely Piano in an Empty Home

Paint peels from the wall
the door hangs ajar
thorn and nettle
blackrose and dead thyme
grass growing high in the yard

Wooden slat left in the garden
overturned by the storm
things move out from beneath
with the soft scent of dark life
and scurry into the soft earth
to tunnel for another harbor
their world fallen apart

Love
was buried here
by a seven year old girl
carefully sealed
with folded paper heart and cloth

Years later
A dandelion pierced the buried box with its taproot
invading by anime tendril
and white earth seeking tentacles
it pierced the cloth doll
like a silver needle
into the arm of a person
dying on the side of the road
that you left dying there
on your way to work
baker company
tattoo fading against laced and dying veins
black and torn
he whispers to himself
through lips wet with tears
we said we'd all go down together

We said we'd all go down
together

A lifetime ago
and then more
The roof collapsed
the rain fell in
and no one lived here anymore

That is where we discovered
a lonely piano
out of tune
and out of time
in a quiet room

This is my memory
and it might fail
but I remember
because I am no longer here
that the sun shined behind you
your shadow drawn against the keys
stained yellow black and white
and a flashing dna
through the moth eaten space
between bench and page

The legs scrape
and you sit down
and I sit next
listening, like my father said
he said. son. listening is an art
listen

Your beautiful hands rest
and you find eighty eight signs
the world will come to an end
that all life will bloom in fire
that our ashes scattered into the solar wind
and you begin to play
the first notes
of a free world
red white and blue
and I sure do love you
let's get that straight

I close my eyes and listen to the sound
of your paintings
their colors like song
rocking the earth
whispering
we are all star stuff
and out of tune
shattered verses
remind me to do more with my life
and whisper of fire
and night

Dear God
I hope you got the letter
master of karate
was it your word we followed
through time and space

To the outside
where a cat half sleeps in a weed filled garden
its ear turns to the sound of a mouse's footfall
and who slips to freedom
His mouse grandchildren
and their grandchildren's mutated grandchildren
keep a deep genetic memory
if they look hard
through yellow cloud
of dihydrogen sulfide
and the stains of
a thousand half forgotten satans
the angels come
with fiery sword
as if to whisper
yes. Virginia
there is a future
and some listen
the time fighters
tearing the lines away from the tentacle root
ripping apart her soft body
and brushing away the earth
bringing her up
soft button eyes
and arms left fallen
her beautiful dress
to find her way back home
to our arms

And so a future is born
And in it
far too many years for us to dream
Two children are running in a yard
in a place near this place
in a world like this world

And they smile
the light of the world
shines through their white eyes

She reaches into a box of toys
and brings colored keys
red green pink yellow and blue
strange fingers
printed with earth
play the first ray of spring
that pushes back winter's gloom
and makes its way back through a once-wild garden
medicine growing in soil mixed with their essence

and flying from plant to flower
a strange descendant of a butterfly
lands and thrusts its mouth
into the soft dark earth
that mixes with the dust of ivory
and wood and cloth
and thin metal copper strings
a metal whose heart was forged
in the dying core
of a star
that laid down its life
against the dark