Heureux Anniversaire

A black and white film
of a man making his way across town.
faded print flickering
like a whisper from the 1920's
echo of citroen
and shaving cream
and a sunflower decapitated by a sunroof

He comes up to the apartment
and she is drunk
it took too long pour sont arrive
lover of gin , one too many
fade out again

She dreams
talking softly to herself
against the din of rain
and fragments of the sky
burned into the ordinary world
and stolen
like diamonds in the night


I come from a dead place
from pride
from sadness
my body failing
my heart a vacuum

a place where no life could ever exist
a place where I need you the most
a place where passion and coincidence
intersect and tear us all apart
drawn like a moth

She is spinning in the dark
a flapper
pearls against black lace
a black Charleston
set against light we can recognize


And I know at once the sorrow
and joy
I taste the bathtub gin

Mixed by an old man with a halo
and a shock of white hair
and thick glasses

When he says goodbye
fighter jets rocket overhead
at mach five

And sure, he is only a man

But he radiates light
and calls to us
in Earnest and Clay
He points to Town
where the county lights shine
like diamonds in the night

And I feel his death and see him fade
Even as he stands before me
but in his place
is light

White

Like a golf ball placed
on the grave
of Bobby Jones

And so
I return
if anything because
like an officer and a gentleman
I have nowhere else to go.
I am
drawn to light

it finds the dream inside
and it burns
I let out a silent scream

Disintegration

The skies break open
The first rain comes
and I see your breath within the dark
and my life becomes

A waking dream