Post-Cognitive

I wish he didn’t ask.
How’s it going with you and…?
Gleaming Herakles tilts his lynx ears toward Orion.
I hope the glancing-eyed Archer is too absorbed in the sport to see.
My pallor, draining into shrugged shoulders.
Leaving a gaze cement, mechanical.

Since when is this July?–my hands are so cold.
I’ve been praying I could maybe feel that summer breeze, been praying the Earth would stop spinning so fast.

Why does she have to spin so fast?
She just keeps spinning and spinning…

And if there’s anything I’ve learned.
Forward motion doesn’t pull over to the side of the road for anything.
But, sometimes, you can lean against that gravitational pull–
Step one, walk to the kitchen after the game and make a cup of tea.

Which, I was hoping you’d be there, watching me pour the boiling water.
Watching me feel proud of how I don’t want to burn myself while I’m pouring the boiling water.
And see me use the steeping roots you gave me.
The calming Kava and bright Licorice.
Letting the steam curl to my face–

But I am alone.
Step two, walk to the amphitheater, sit down, and breathe.
Breathe in the steam, Breathe like she taught you.

Breathe In one two three four Hold one two three four Breathe Out one two three four Hold one two three four. Breathe In one two three four Hold one two three four Breathe Out one two three four Hold one two three four Breathe In one two Hold one two three Breathe Out one two Hold one two three Breathe

Herakles arrives in his Shadow way.
Not gleaming so much.
He sets the oak roots of his legs at almost right angles.
Sitting behind me like a tower.

How is it, really?
Don’t really know
All right, you don’t have to talk about it

I feel like I’m hitting my head against a wall
I’m sorry to hear that
Sip the scorching tea.
Is that supposed to help

And then I: Flash Flood, Flash Flood like I know how

The glancing eyes the careful steps the shoulders turned away the vapid smiles the waning conversations the fresh smell of Lemongrass the Earth spinning the Sun just not caring the uninterrupted nerve endings the frustrated nerve endings the trying to go hunting the promise to find the creek the tugging towards the Ocean the two years ago in my apartment the therapist’s couch the empty hands the music’s cackling decadence the tossing and turning at night

God I hate this song
He says.

It drips like the condensation on a cold glass of water.
It burns like the fire Leo stokes in the pit below.

The music, the Earth spinning–
Trigger

Herakles looks at me like a river and says,
Come on, let’s get out of here

Mercury (the Broad-Winged Hawk)

 

cury curous curious.

everything is made of wood:
benches and buildings and platforms and tables and, all the while,
hemmed in by wood

the sky, even:
blue-grained wood,
knots swirled white

he quicksilvers right through,
wings bark-brown and then ivory

–can’t seem to find any animal tracks in the dirt–

     What’s your name, again?

carved out under the tallest red trees, beam-bleached plume curls,
then eyes crisp like the tip of a feather quill

     Artemis–and yours?

his gaze holds still, fixed within fluid movement,
a reflective luster when the gold licks through the branches

cury curous curious.

     Mercury.

ensuing, his timbre hums to the tune of thinly-veiled self-amusement.

Hiding (Type Four)

Hello

          I’ve walked through fire.

Nice

          The holes in my ears are nothing.

to

          I’m tattooed in ways you can’t even see, baby.

meet

          Scar tissue is the blanket I tuck myself beneath. 

you

          Can you still smell the smoke, I wonder?

What

          Would you like to see all the ways I can fall apart?

is

          I’m waiting for the world to become sharp again.

your

          Ever wonder if anything’s forever?

name?

          I’d ask you to wake me, but I never sleep.

My

          There’s a dark wolf inside, he bites my arms from time to time.

name

          No, I’m not your nail polished roses or your soda pop sneakers.

is

          You’ll never chip away my skin.

Letter to Orion

If you ever want to skip town for hunting game in the nebulas,
take me with you.

If you ever want to pack up and go hike through the night skies,
take me with you.

If you ever want to get lost and dumpster-dive in the alleys of Mars,
take me with you.

If you ever want to stay up all night at a saloon in the clouds,
(we’ll trace each other’s constellations)
take me with you.

If you ever want to forget this gravity for a storm planet orbit,
(we’ll play hide-and-seek in Saturn’s rings)
take me with you.

If you ever want to wander from the tide and go chase meteorites,
(we’ll dance in the shower of shooting stars)
take me with you.

If you ever want to slip off into the woods
(we’ll carve our initials in the bark of Zeus’ oak)
take me with you.

If you ever want to run away and find our own quest like the heroes of old,
(we’ll make a legendary myth, darling)
take me with you.

Take me with you,         take me with you,         take me with you,         take me with you,

If you ever feel the urge to leave your fears behind,
take me with you;

If it’s nowhere or anywhere,          I don’t care, I don’t care,           just as long as you
(promise me you’ll)
take me with you.

Terror lives in the local ice cream parlor

I’ll take the chocolate flavor
swirled with peanut butter —

No sir, not of heights, not one bit,
neither the Moon’s whip on the tide,
nor taking a little tumble with Gravity.
wanna see the amethyst ribbons on my knees? 

What?
Oh, yeah; uh, on a cone,
(Thanks) —

But, you know, sir,
talking to strangers might make me,
and not only are they teeming close in every seat and space;
they’re the ones who drove me here.