Poetrypuddle

The Black Part

2012-02-26T01:08:00.009-05:00

The Black Part

There are those photos so vivid you can see
the camera with an iris as its target reflected.

Or is it the pupil? -- Yes, the black part.
Someone clicking a shutter is captured.

Tonight, as a certain ray from the marquee lit
yours, I saw myself there. And it was no photo.

This was the real thing, the darkest part of you.
You answered a question with only your eyes.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

These Arguments

2012-02-18T01:22:00.004-05:00

These Arguments

We have had some Academy award-winners, for sure.
And that last one had a built-in acceptance speech.
A red carpet made so because of blue hitting oxygen.

You would have drawn it from me, the very blood,
but mercy had me passing out -- a terrific screenplay.
I fainted from exertion, shouting I hate these arguments.

In the morning I awoke on the couch, and there was
a blanket around me. But I had not placed it there.
And instantly I knew, you had won yet another Oscar.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

In Lieu of Rhetoric

2012-02-08T01:08:00.003-05:00

In Lieu of Rhetoric

To be separately evangelized is a common thing.
Tonight, together, a trifle unique.
If at any time a cosmic occurrence occurred,
would you agree it involved our eyes?

How, without a spoken word, we knew enough
to not speak one? Good listeners, we did so --
Until my faint smile was courage, and you said
The love you speak of seems very conditional.

My right hand upon your left, as lamplights
guide us home to our adulterous lair, Love --
The entirety of my being is so filled with words
that I opt for silence, and your wondrous hearing.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Gravity Gone

2012-02-04T01:55:00.003-05:00

Gravity Gone

You cannot press against me, bringing worry
into my leisure. This is not all I have to say --

As I think of it, the nights when your embrace
was a trick, are over. You were ever, a moon.

Using me. Granted, we all have a hidden side.
I wish I had seen yours, because what I got

was cratered. And so, un-spinning, I send you.
-- why could you not have turned toward me?

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Scatterbrain

2012-01-31T02:56:00.008-05:00

Scatterbrain

It was your voice, darling, rising from below
that brought me to the balcony. Lock the safe.
I do not know how to leave a room on vacation?
Lingering there, I watched you reach your chair

as someone paddled out to a then cresting wave.
Watched him ride it to a shore near your feet.
Some manner of dance session on the beach
caught my attention before I grabbed my towel.

Leaving, halfway down the hall, I remembered --
returning to 409 as the elevator arrived and left.
Without even trying to do it you show me. Always.
The three words I owe you tonight, duly earned.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Birds

2012-01-29T22:45:00.005-05:00

Birds

One thing about birds.
Not a one of them smiles.
Not ever.

Yet, give me wings
and I imagine my face ripping
off from the smiling alone.

Not to mention the wind itself
hollowing out my jowls
as I swoop and dive.

Defying what I know about gravity
in a macabre smile
thinking thoughts

no bird, anywhere, has
ever thunk.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Contagious

2012-01-26T01:53:00.006-05:00

Contagious

Again, the best day, yesterday, happened not.
Will Shakespeare would have fashioned it thus
as a grinning lover leaned forward to hear of it.
He would switch around those last two words --
creating a scenario less tragic. Adding a sense
of poetry -- diverting thoughts of rats and plague.

Truth dimmed via language. This, I allow, is a gift.
In keeping, as a curtain rises on a morrow's sun,
two words regarding your own talent warrant a bow.
My dear, I have caught from you a wanted disease.
An ever unfurrow'ed brow upon what shall come
after a shared breakfast. Your optimism infects me.

- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Papers

2012-01-23T00:57:00.004-05:00

Papers

I shudder to think how different things might have been.
Leaving the office five seconds later, everything ruined.
A slower elevator. A last minute phone call. A Friday off.

Thoughts on the weekend, I ran to my car, coat-whipped.
Glancing, I saw you fight with those papers, one caught.
Another, winding towards me, I grabbed without thinking.

Holding it, I watched you leave the earth several times.
Somehow you snatched up all the others, with a grace.
I walked over, handing you the most errant of them all.

You pulled a lovely shock of brunette away, to thank me.
Tonight, twenty years later, hands in that hair, I whisper.
We thank God for many things -- I thank Him for the wind.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2012 --

Blinking Light

2011-12-31T03:23:00.004-05:00

Blinking Light

Do not be alarmed as we approach some turbulence --
The stewardess, as she handed me the pillow, smiled.
I placed it behind all of your dreams, hearing a sigh.

My own [dreams] kept looking at you, as you slept on.
The shaking did not waken you. Neither the sudden
crying of a child. The past few days have been hectic.

Beyond, the beacon of the wingtip flashed against
the dark. Hair of your nodding head mingled in the sky.
And I wondered what this must look like from below.

Someone in a yacht, sipping chablis, hearing a rumble
looks up and sees a light. Knowing nothing about a
marriage on a sandy beach, a noon from this moment.

-- common with nighttime approaches to Montego Bay.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Feels Like Home

2011-12-28T01:04:00.008-05:00

Feels Like Home
[For T & H]

Friends come in when everything is out.
When significant days of the year aren't
all they should be, someone in your life
knows what to do.

And if they are true, if it's real, they realize
that the important word is not know.
It is do.
I'm trying now to think of the right phrase.

A gift I can return to them.
Something that summarizes a book of
undeserved goodness. And the perfect
thing has just come to me --

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Christmas, Eve

2011-12-24T00:32:00.002-05:00

Christmas, Eve

Legend has it that evolution is less than a theory
or even a myth. But that begs the question --
What does legend mean?

No people on the Earth, and then one of them
listen to a snake talk. Later, she will blame Adam
for her decision.

So the story says. As coincidence would have it
only one of us bear the name of these characters.
You.

And it's Christmas, Eve. Would it be too much
for me to ask you [the kids are sleeping]
to think of me, as that apple?

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Open Concept

2011-12-23T22:54:00.005-05:00

Open Concept

Life. It succeeds at every attempt to throw
itself at yourself. I remember now, initially
advocating that modicum of privacy.
A keeping of one's things to one's self, with
minimal reference to architectural theory.
You finally nodded to those partitions
the many hard walls I suggested best.
Forbidden grounds, protecting better ideas.

How I wish I was silent, that you had spoken
sooner. And I wish I had listened, earlier.
Along with the regret of thinking my secrets
the greater of us both, head in hands, I
need you now. I chased you away, revelation
leveling me. -- Come back, flawed woman.
The house of me cannot stand without you
holding the walls of my own unspoken past.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Terrarium

2011-12-13T00:37:00.004-05:00

Terrarium

As my father set the thing up I watched,
heart set on a bike, a Mizuno catcher's mitt.
Confusion trebled with the dumping of ants.

This will teach you about industry, production.
And it did, it did that. Day after day, tunneling
against the sides, they carried. Endless lifting.

A frantic community intent on thriving thrived
under my gaze. But I hated the invisibility of
needless desire. The lack of leisure -- love.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

My Skin

2011-12-04T03:42:00.002-05:00

My Skin

Today is my 48th birthday. So I rubbed my face
where the beard is, there, salted with grey.
My hands are so soft. Five decades
nigh on, everything is smooth. Supple, even.

I conjure a pair of leather gloves that would feel
as smooth against this face, this skin. Worn
to a frazzle -- in tatters, discarded long ago,
they would have not endured this examination.

But today my own hands feel the face that kissed
the cat of my childhood. The nose that breathed
the air of my beginnings. The lips that mouthed
the first words of my life. The eyes that saw it all.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Sharks

2011-12-04T02:47:00.004-05:00

Sharks

They do what they do.
If you fling a ballast of blood and meat
they will circle, breaching the surface
in a pursuit of existence.

But I threw nothing out that I know of.
And yet you surrounded me, grinning
like a shark would -- feasting on
what Darwin himself would never

attribute to a survival of the fittest.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Mirage After Mirage

2011-11-20T01:15:00.005-05:00

Mirage After Mirage

A sly joy in not owning anything, we drove on.
A sudden thrill in our unknowing, we listened.
Generations of guilt washed away -- riding
toward mirage after mirage in that rented car.

Your hair a pennant whipped out the window
destination undestined. Thinking we were on
the Vermont Trail, and landing in New Hampshire
there was not even a shrug of care between us.

Checking in, we owned a town unknown to us.
Ate Chinese food uneaten in China. I gave you
your nickname, Mira, short form of mirage. Things
that form on the highway ahead of you, in the sun.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Reckless

2011-11-19T23:22:00.005-05:00

Reckless

We were on that ferris wheel, suspended
death begging for insanity to outweigh reason
and you all ears, unfastening the safety bar.

We were on that ferry. You leaned so far over
I had to reel you in like a squirming dolphin
tasting my own heart, my saliva like a rope.

Jesus Christ, woman. On the dance floor.
Climbing on the stage as I flailed alone --
you played that guy's bongos like Sheila E.

We were at the casino. I hid in my hands
when you told that high-flyer he could not
sustain the next roll of the "god-damn" dice.

Later, as we sat at the bar with him, and you
continued in your counsel -- it was just then I
realized you are my best shot at living a life

that is wreckless.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

First Snowfall

2011-11-19T00:55:00.004-05:00

First Snowfall

As tardy as I can recall, this year held back.
We sat at a picnic table far beyond the season
smoking, talking. Not talking - and a grey sky.

A white piece of it fell on my black sleeve.
Here in mid-November, I thought of Halloweens
when I brushed it, scads from from my shoulder.

I watched this lone flake die against my heat
just as you said, Did you see that? The corners
dissolving, fading slowly but all at once?

Four words formed in my mind and came out.
I thought I was the only one witnessing that
first snowfall. Your answer has melted me, since.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Without Name

2011-11-12T03:45:00.003-05:00

Without Name

Another rivulet ran down my back, thrashing
as I did at the brush, branches and leaves
falling to the side in a haphazard pile. I will
build my home in this perfect overgrown spot.

Tonight a bonfire of what should not be here
will light up -- Tripping headlong hand on shin
and axe in the grass I then saw the foundation.
Wincing, sitting upright, encased by four walls.

Within a house that once was, and is now not
I sat, not the first to desire this view of the lake.
What of that family, what century-dead dreams
still linger among these thistles and brambles?

Rising to continue, I pictured this added task.
I must smash up this old cement -- When my
great-great grandmother called her husband in
to dinner, what word, what name did she utter?

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Whiteness

2011-10-31T01:17:00.008-04:00

Whiteness

Please, not just yet.
A sweet fragrance
in all that touches you is
unfinished.
Wait with me as I wait.
Bring your hair to me.
Your shoulders wrapped --

You fall and breathe me in.
We do not speak words.
-- in that dress tonight
yield to whiteness beneath.

The privilege, darling
of unsinned sin
is about to commit itself.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Two Sheets

2011-10-17T02:12:00.004-04:00

Two Sheets

Two sheets flapping in the wind.
Some things in life will outlive you.
Life, sheets, and wind.

When you no longer can, they will.
Live -- life -- alive.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The Next Slow One

2011-09-17T22:03:00.007-04:00

The Next Slow One

It was hellish to wait watching you dance with others,
while lovely.
Agonizing to envision future cowardice on my part.
The time would come.

A tree grew taller in the interim. Forests were born
and died, turning to coal.
Countries were toured, sunny beaches lain upon
before [miracle] --

the band, slowing as my heart raced in apposite time
obliged my resolve.
Your smile an echo of the first notes in that song --
you gave me your hand.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

My Foot In It

2011-08-13T02:36:00.004-04:00

My Foot In It

I like concrete. Trees?
Terrific! If they were better
skyscrapers would be wooden.

We need it, and so much of it.
I kissed a wall once -- only
because it was so concrete.

Abstract art? I prefer reality.
Bridges falling down? I would
rather they stand. Endure.

I will die in a few years, decades
at best. But when I was a kid
they made a sidewalk and I put

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Etre

2011-07-10T02:29:00.004-04:00

Etre

I saw a deer being hit by a car.
Language is funny. Human being. Being in love.
Being. To be. Etre. Verbalizing existence itself
even if we have to mention being dead.

What interests me most is being in love.
Being is the most important word of the three.
When it leaves, the others deny ever being there.
But oh, when it stays --

I think that the being part is like saying
I saw a deer being hit by a car.
A cat, being cat-like, walked across a parking lot.
-- someone wants to hear more of the story.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Weeds

2011-06-25T03:24:00.002-04:00

Weeds

Growing just where I struggle, they thrive,
taking some of the water intended for me.

One day I will be a tomato, and damn it,
this ____ is drawing from me something I want.
I curse the wind, Mother Nature, and even God.
Must I befriend meanwhile, this vagrant?
Usurper of my moisture, squatter of my ground.

I longed for cleaner landings, says the weed.
Why must I share my thirst with a peasant?
Common vegetable. Good for nothing but the
table of a beast.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Traffic Lights

2011-06-11T04:18:00.002-04:00

Traffic Lights

We hear that death and taxes are the constant.
The two things that are sure.
But I say traffic lights.

Red, orange and green are on duty.
Stop, wait, or go on through.
At any intersection, these are the options.

To disobey them is a freedom, yes.
But like life's own signals, to do so regularly,
is to learn they knew best.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

One Star

2011-06-11T03:36:00.003-04:00

One Star

On the balcony just now, two clouds
like parentheses around a star saw me
seeing them. And it struck me.

We use the word asterisk to refer to
something beyond the text. Some
greater explanation needed.

Indeed. This twinkly light.
How silly we are to think that an added
e, i, s, and k, could help us see further.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Monsters On The Island

2011-06-11T03:05:00.004-04:00

Monsters On The Island

Coconuts and those red fruits we love.
Sun. Sand in the toes, waves washing
golden blue as birds we can pet sing.

Night fires. Watching stories swirl up
as we speak them -- flame blurring
you to me, me to you -- into existence.

Rain cannot spoil this, nor storm bring
a longing for rescue. Four winds tear
us limb from limb, our spirits joined, go.

But there is a fierce terror of the mind.
Dream of what once was. Healed only by
your hand in my hair, and the whisper

Those are memories. Only memories.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Please

2011-05-25T22:59:00.001-04:00

Please

It's not at all the rain, no. Nor the wind.
All things considered we both know
we've been summer to each other. But
autumn's turning.

I just need your next words to be a sweater.
Your embrace, a blanket over me.
Just need your eyes to have a fire that warms
without burning.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The Second Thing

2011-05-22T00:57:00.003-04:00

The Second Thing

Some will tell you it's where you've been.
Others, where you're going.

What to believe? I suggest
living a bit beyond your first impression.

Smiling with me as we together realize
it's mostly --

© Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011

Meteorshower

2011-05-09T00:55:00.003-04:00

Meteorshower

You said There's one, pointing, and as I turned
I saw one that you missed as you looked at me

Our lips touched, and we forgot why we're alive.

They say that when you wish on one, you get it.
You get what it is you wish for. But I had no time

to wish for anything. I was too busy seeing, on
the inside of my eyelids, something greater than

stars, falling or otherwise.
Our lips touched, and we forgot why we're alive.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Welcome To Her World

2011-05-08T23:44:00.002-04:00

Welcome To Her World

Every astronaut should quiver.
Entering a spaceship, you have every right to ask:

- Will I need an alternate oxygen source?
- When will I be back?
- Are the locals reasonable?
- Have others made this voyage and lived?
-………how many?

- The raised eyebrow. What does it mean?

Every astronaut should quiver.
Entering a spaceship, you have every right to ask.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

The End

2011-04-01T17:57:00.003-04:00

The End

It was the walking away.

The footsteps of it all, the sound
heels on floor, steps, street, clouds.

A sorry kiss on your knees, ankles
toes. Soul. I realized.

North and south can meet again.
East and west -- never.

It was the walking away.
The setting sun.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Perfect People

2011-03-23T00:53:00.003-04:00

Perfect People

Spent a night in a forest
looking for a flawless tree.

Somewhere around three a.m.
I wondered about criteria.

Height? Girth? Bark texture? Leaves?
Root dispersion? Affinity to others?

Does this tree provide a natural habitat for animals or at least timber for homes for animals that pay taxes?

I got weary, and fast.
Leaned against one that made me sleep.

My last thought? The next time I do this
I'll set out in the daytime.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Bethany

2011-02-18T22:30:00.003-05:00

Bethany

I know Bethany gets Hamlet in much the same way that I do.
Downward cast, possible tears. Book open, she followed
every word in the movie. Forefinger on text
she stayed, lingered as the bell long past wrung
faded. Footsteps in the hall.

This is not just a part, but all
that matters. For every word spoken, another sung
caused a living Ophelia to dread the next.
And an English teacher, for lack of them, swallowed --
I know Bethany gets Hamlet in much the same way that I do.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2011 --

Promontory

2011-01-01T00:09:00.005-05:00

Promontory

Through a sliver of eyelid I felt you shiver.
Not from wind or cold -- it was fear I saw.
Waves in your eyes, mist at my back.

Rocks and fish below, arms the horizon.
Quit it you pleaded as I blinded myself
abandoning my birth to your friendship.

My birth, life, and death, at a promontory.
An uncaring sea slapping in approval
of your decision to hug me closer to you.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Untitled

2010-12-28T21:23:00.005-05:00

Untitled

Face a fretboard he knelt, fingers webs
spun of pain.
A songbird on a tuning peg would bow
when the old guitarist was done

-- then fly away.
The piazza rang with children
scrabbling for the coins left behind.

For at a certain moment each day
the old guitarist would simply vanish.
No one having heard knowing why
-- he played at all.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Homonym

2010-12-17T23:24:00.004-05:00

Homonym

Matter.

In the first sense not what is thought or felt.
Rather that which is held, seen or smelled.

In the second, everything physical scatters.
Add an "s", and only what is invisible really

© Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

The Sigh of a Frog

2010-11-26T23:00:00.002-05:00

The Sigh of a Frog

If infinity is what we think it is then whatever you can think
of, exists. Not convinced? Travel a bit further, it will turn up.
Go faster. It will reveal itself prior to your thoughts.

A far greater mystery lies nestled in a folded-in-upon-
itself perception that your imagination counts for something.

[The frog I just saw jump from here to there reconsidered.
-- Simply exhaled, and sat.]

In the beginning God created the heavens and the --
Thing is, infinity seems to limit itself only to as many other
titles the contents of its own poem can justify.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Sparks

2010-11-20T00:46:00.003-05:00

Sparks

A big deal is made of the invention of fire.
Rightfully so.
Think of how many things would not exist
if someone had not frictated something against another
until pre-undisturbed atoms said Uncle.

Combustation.
You would not be driving a car, or reading about
anything on a screen. The main reason your house
would be in the dark is because you would not have one.

Before any marshmallows were properly roasted
several cavemen watched sparks run aground.
Think of this next time you watch the sun set, leaving
the earth unburned.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

A Peahen Complains

2010-11-20T00:00:00.004-05:00

A Peahen Complains

Thank God for that sunroof idea. Those two giraffes
were about asphyxiated before Shem cranked it open.
What angers me most? None of us asked for this.

Follow the ostriches. Follow the emus. Follow follow
follow. If I had hands I would have taken that air horn
and flung it into Ethiopia. We marched like animals.

Granted, nearly anything is better than drowning.
But the noise and smell is killing me. On the intercom I
heard that the Captain sent out a reconnaissance dove.

Rumour is we land tomorrow. Listen up now, Horatio.
Evolve some better tailfeathers! Something with planets
on it -- something your future daughter cannot resist.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Wheat

2010-11-18T00:11:00.002-05:00

Wheat

It happened. Called everything within me to account.
I had to process the possibility of hallucination,
questioning every answer I knew.
It was so exhilarating to have to do all of this, knowing
I would be stumped. I would start all over, and re-see it.

The Beach Boys, telling about their 409, the visor down.
Afloat on the next asphalt mirage, sinking as we arrived.
The thing you did with your hair. Pulling it from your collar
just as a breeze rippled a field you could not see.
Behind. Beside you. To my right, wheat bending.

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Six Feet Away

2010-11-17T23:18:00.008-05:00

Six Feet Away

A mile was not required, a city block un-summoned.
No need to restate anything with respect to as the crow flies
or refer to with the wind or against it.

Whatever is just beyond a body length was far enough.
You know, when I was a kid I laughed
pushing two magnets apart by reversing the poles.

But you turned from me.

[Never was anything so instantly realized, as the event
I now describe.
Whatever is required to reverse this --
the thing that keeps you from walking further
-- it has everything to do with why the planet we live on
has a sun to keep it warm.]

-- © Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010 --

Sudden Coronation

2010-11-10T23:51:00.008-05:00

Sudden Coronation

My pleas unheard, the wand hovering.
This is not what I meant at all -- Kitty
skittered in fright, slinking to her mat
-- send me not to eternal flatness.
a backward glance curling head to tail.

But you must decide this very moment!
Curses that I agreed to such a wager.
Struck by the bad breath and harsh voice
of this fairy I quickly assessed her terms.
The four choices: Clubs. Spades. Hearts or

Diamonds! I shouted. The only one in profile.
For I will not look full on this tragedy. Kitty
snarled a sad mewl as the wand hit my head.
Losing my balance, losing my very legs
I fell forward onto my left cheek, silent.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

Rabbit at Vimy Ridge

2010-11-07T22:43:00.002-05:00

Rabbit at Vimy Ridge

Long since deaf, my other senses were heightened.
I may've caught Noah loading two into a boat as much
as what I did see, and today's calendar says 1987.

Today I shall die at the age of 91 with the image of a
bunny zipping through No-Man's-Land and my brain.
We are survivors. We lived through all of that. We --

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010.

Mysteries

2010-11-07T21:50:00.003-05:00

Mysteries

Might be the way the shoreline moves.
A grey ball tugging the ocean nearer.

Something to do with the candle lit
while a planet flies through nothing.

The dolphin smiling. Does a swan
preen its feathers to look prettier?

A monarch returns to this very tree
as the worst disasters fall from the sky.

Might be all of these things keeping us
alive as my lips on yours, set the sun.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Niagara

2010-11-03T00:02:00.005-04:00

Niagara

Exhibitionism in nature is just that, natural. Your
observation has no effect, one way or the other.

You might drive in the very opposite direction
this morning -- hating the world and all planets.

Glaring, not saying the words. Feeling them burn
holes in your soul is punishment enough, today.

Imagine that before you were, and after you shall
be, a torrent over a lip of rock tells misty secrets.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

You Never Saw Me

2010-10-18T22:10:00.003-04:00

You Never Saw Me

Near tripping into the fountain There is a thing
inside the ear called something helps us balance
Remain upright That final shot or the one before
Might have been a sudden shifting of the axis
of the earth An earthquake pushing me right side
up
Satan falling from heaven a gravity shift of sorts
The moon pulling the sheets of the ocean tight
Me recalling my father's final hug / my consent
Friends in a dream calling Come back, Come here
Another shot at life -- whatever it was I know you
never saw me recover But she did She did she did.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

How The Nanny Got The Job

2010-10-01T23:20:00.005-04:00

How The Nanny Got The Job

Clemson's cigar between my teeth and I hate cigars I grinned
east and west choking literally gagging eyes cinched shut as
slapping down my King of spades to an uproar of boos cheers
and suds flying he asked it again How did ye land such a girl?

Every crude thing within wanted to burst out but her brown eyes
from where they now watched a night's crib stopped me cold and
rising from that table with her on my mind I said Likes laughter.
The girl closed her ad with Likes laughter and by God she does!

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

And Then

2010-09-27T22:07:00.002-04:00

And Then

One nerve ending from oblivion we stand or sit
lie or walk, a misfiring synapse from gone.
He said what follows just before he was.

Clouds passed over the eyes that had been
a life of sky, mine raining on his left hand.
As it briefly tightened

he described what we would say was a fly
buzzing -- an erratic path down what seemed
the hallway of another world.

c. Ciprianowords Inc., 2010

Skyscrapers

2010-09-19T23:27:00.002-04:00

Skyscrapers

Behind you two men with briefcases heatedly discussed
something that does not matter. In the scheme of things.
Squinting, shutting your right eye, stepping slowly left
as I instructed, holding -- from swaying into a taxi's path

-- you. Laughed.
Because you got it as it happened. You saw it, as I did.
We saw them align. Together. Howard Roark tossed his
sheets aside and leapt out of bed. I turned to your throat

kissing it for the first time ever, as your gaze never altered.
Laughing with me drowning everything that does not --

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Last Thought

2010-09-09T23:15:00.004-04:00

Last Thought

We are my last thought.
In the interim sharing much
of whatever now should mean.

The opposite of regret, a rock
on a tomb, sealing nothing.
Heels kicking sand to a sky.

Wings on the thermal. Leaves
drinking sunlight. Clouds ready.
Canyons in a yawn, thirsty.

Everything, forever pointing in
icicles, late in the year. Saying
one will think this, for two.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

April-Thoughts

2010-08-22T21:48:00.006-04:00

April-Thoughts

The coniferous are the least vociferous.
Your pines, larches, firs -- these know.
Winter's coming, we're staying the course.
The bravest cypresses were Vincent's.

January's going to freeze your sap
so shut your yap. That was the call
bellered by a redwood. A shiver
acquiescent shook needle to cone.

Dudes, when things get rough, drop.
The deciduous forest nodded, knocking a few
leaves free early. Someone will rake us.
In the meantime, think April-thoughts.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

It Was The World

2010-08-22T19:46:00.003-04:00

It Was The World

Mornings I would wait for them.
I never knew it then, but I did, I waited.
They had a way of arriving. Of staying --
He'd read the paper or a book.
She'd bury herself in a Harpers or New Yorker.
-- of making me feel young.

Feigning a chore I would lean forward
just to hear some of their talk.
Refill his coffee, her tea, slowly, to catch more of it.
Those words between them like dew on grass,
sunlight aslant.

A wayward blueberry on her lip once sat
and she smiled, unbeknownst. No napkin
but his finger, lifted it. Right then it was the world.
When his head bent slightly to the left,
so did mine, and I loved her too.

So, today, when the bell tinkled,
and I turned with two saucers in my hands
toward one man -- nothing more needed to be said.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Spilled

2010-08-01T22:11:00.004-04:00

Spilled

Most of the morning I was in good spirits.
Smiling at times, talking to people, commending
them on their journey. So good to see you.
Nods. Warm hands in mine, the more aggrieved.

Rehearsing salient points of the eulogy.
Reminding the officiating minister of a program
adjustment, I turned into the room she was in.
She, my mother.

Cannot be reduced to a pronoun.
I did not know this yet, but as I rounded the edge
of the coffin, my eyes vomited everything
that I have ever been. Clear. Salty. And spilled.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

She Doesn't Know

2010-07-26T22:57:00.006-04:00

She Doesn't Know

Thinks that yesterday was something I've done before.
That tear was because of the sand, the wind
and my heart always beats that fast.

I've never even flown a kite before the string
between her fingers seared mine
soaring outwards in abandon.

Never clinked a glass with quite that dazzle.
Thrown back my own neck in a movie-perfect
laugh without a script.

She thinks that she is not the reason I have
never been myself before this very moment.
Now. And my heart always beats this fast.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Pumping Water

2010-07-23T23:43:00.002-04:00

Pumping Water

Separate buses, but the same stops.
Yours the grade threes. Mine the fours.
The clamor.
We spilled out

between somewhere and other, sweating.
Thing is, right now it is all more real

Your kids surrounded you while mine
ran amok. Always in control, you.
Slapdash, my grade fours were rabid!

Unprepared slavering beasts
to your styrofoam cup-holding charges
drinking in satiated blasts.

than it was then. Me, wondering
for twenty years now...

Morning light is falling upon the shut eyes
once fixed upon a broken pump-handle.

the last word of your unfinished sentence
"Piece of ____."

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

A Wallet Moment

2010-07-13T01:03:00.001-04:00

A Wallet Moment

I smashed a car because my arm was around you.
I smashed a car because I did not know how to drive.
I smashed a car because I had never driven one before.

This is my dad's car, you cried, in front of that 7-11.
And the guy was storming out of the place, swearing.
The most honest moment of my life. A wallet moment.

His door looked really pushed in. No. Demolished.
Without leaving my seat, as it got incredibly warmer,
I settled the matter. Will this eradicate the difficulty?

He sifted through some hundreds, peppered with fifties.
And nodded, as I went the extra mile, telling him of my
first night behind the wheel of anything faster than me.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Dancing Bear

2010-07-10T00:21:00.002-04:00

Dancing Bear

Why have we not seen it yet?

It was a whimpering appeal -- not unlike the deflation
of desire. But the pace was maintained, lockstep
we were marching toward an explanation, or not.

Passing The Earl of Sussex, then Nicholas Hoare
you again moaned When and Where? Cried fatigue
if nothing else would keep you from this meeting.

But then we turned to the left and entered a courtyard.
I admit, I was startled when the clanging of my own skull
against the statue rivaled the clamor of your lips.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Chord

2010-07-07T23:48:00.002-04:00

Chord

Not that you could see it, but a heavy snow
fell behind you. Droplets in flake form.
Who would imagine such a thing to exist?

Certainly I, in my current state, winking,
asking as if I knew the right answer
did not. Imagine… or know. Yet asked

you, Chord or individual note,
which do you prefer?

Non-answer, bald as the moon -- and just
louder than the white. The tilt of your head
was the purest of these I have ever heard.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

The List

2010-06-20T23:56:00.002-04:00

The List

Vern. Vern Twist told me to do it. Make a list
he said. Write all the things you want in the
girl. Make sure you include sizes of things.
Have a look at her mother, she will be that
one day. What are your favorite foods?

Write that down. What you like to eat. Ask
her if she likes that stuff. Can she cook it?

Brown eyes. I would have never written that.
A laugh like a stranded seal. A worried look
when the word kitchen is mentioned.
Running my hands through your hair tonight,
last night, forever.
I am so glad I never listened to Vern.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

death with interruptions

2010-06-20T23:00:00.004-04:00

death with interruptions

Shadows in a cave lengthen
an island unmoored drifts
at a red light a man rubs his eyes
in panic unbelief

Jesus tells the real story
while the stones of Lisbon
weep

He climbs a ladder in the archive
hides a phone book [shaking
rain from his hat]
clay dolls harden

Branches bow
pebbles roll forward and settle
no wave will push them further
the sun is dimmed
without cloud

all the words cannot tell it

c. Ciprianowords Inc. 2010

Millennium Park

2010-06-04T23:56:00.002-04:00

Millennium Park

My nostrils flare at the scent of dead meat
roasted and ready resting in the cheapest
whitest bread known to human civilization.

Yours have other designs -- sensing sugar
and fun -- pink whims of a child on a paper
roll spun as though invented for you alone.

I let my stomach rumble as I watched you at
those superfluous strands of nothingness --
tearing off your cotton candy -- I fell in love.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

The Right Answer

2010-05-30T23:56:00.005-04:00

The Right Answer

Once you asked me about when it was
I knew I loved you. Vaguely I answered
citing a time when we danced so close.

I recalled your perfume, what you wore.
The joke of the night, and what you drank.
The song that a wannabe Robert Plant sang.

Truth be known, it was about the books.
If you were locked up for a year, food supplied...
your instant reply, Library, won me over.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

Not With You

2010-05-30T23:20:00.003-04:00

Not With You

I think it comes from boredom. Or hot weather.
You've probably noticed that I'm not good at it.

Correction. I am a professional. The best. But
not with you -- no. When you drop the gloves?

I want to pick them up for you. I'm not there.
Bareknuckle fisticuffs? All the more, I'm undone.

It must be so difficult for you to fight with me.
To argue with someone while they eat your spit.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Further Than The Garden

2010-05-21T23:55:00.002-04:00

Further Than The Garden

Just beyond it are deer. Two of them, munching
what is rightfully theirs. Defying no fence, and
asking for nothing more, making no sound.

They were doing this before either of us noticed.

Where are the binoculars? No, the camera! I said.
And you slapped my arm, Shush! Let them be!
Ouch, I fell upon you laughing, as they looked up.

We were doing this before either of them noticed.

Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

Two Drinks

2010-05-17T00:30:00.003-04:00

Two Drinks

There. The deck chair and the blue towel. Your book.
Isabel Allende. But [he sets them down] you. Gone.

And scans everywhere at a glance. Paba Tan spf 15.
Cap open. Guy selling hats. Calypso music. Sand.

You should be -- you should be -- she should be --
And a sound, a laugh he knows in the ocean, laughs.

The sun clips the water, the very wave swallowing her
promises him. She is here. She will drink this, with me.

c. Ciprianowords Inc., 2010

Your Book

2010-05-15T00:07:00.002-04:00

Your Book

Reading two different ones we leaned against
the root-entwined trees. Under the same sun,
different branches, shading.

I asked if you were enjoying yours. You nodded
without turning to me. I set mine down. A cloud
just then, reminded you of me.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

Ceremony

2010-05-12T01:29:00.004-04:00

Ceremony

During a certain portion I fell out of my depth.
It was not only how the fans were waving
or the foreign gibberish. I could deal with that.
Two things threw me further than I was able
to reel myself in. Your scent and your eyes.

Something like lilacs would smell to someone
who had never been near any. And above all
more than anything, the way you turned as the
tea was poured into my cup. The host asked me
to stand, but I was falling, shoeless, face-first.

Onto a planet
where no lilac, pink-purple, ever bloomed.

c. Ciprianowords Inc., 2010

Moth To Flame

2010-05-11T23:54:00.003-04:00

Moth To Flame

The hinge of his mind a rusted gate latch
scratched shut as the moon drew his eye.
Hand in hair, the swaying branches push
him from his table to let the wind twist the
empty page. Wax fell -- and is still falling
from the near side of the candle. This one.

This fire that struck the moth, fluttering in.
Window opened, his muse was not long
in the telling -- What we most desire shall
consume us, and the having take us whole.
This he wrote, newly inspired. An unhinged
man, turning vellum o'er the charred wings.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc., 2010

I Lost It

2010-04-30T23:25:00.006-04:00

I Lost It

He runs, tipping the backyard garbage pail.
In the kitchen, mom is peeling a carrot.
Knife clanging in the sink, he grabs her leg.

[A robin hobbles on the neighbor's lawn.
Last look at own entrails… open beak.
Worms underground crawl heedless.]

Darling, darling, she bends and lifts,
wiping away his tears --
Where is your new slingshot?

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Coffee Forest

2010-04-25T22:56:00.004-04:00

Coffee Forest

Pretty sure it does not grow like this,
I kept dreaming. Trees like sequoias
dangling coffee beans.

Men on scissor-lifts hacking at vines.
The berries falling as I strangled
my pillow.

Other men, side-spike boots, climbing
and cutting as they got higher,
tossed a branch or two, to me.

All of these characters I forget, recalling
your brown eyes, Evita. Recording names
and activities in your ledger.

Following your calves into the quonset
where I pretended to know why I was there
as the sun was setting.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Poems

2010-04-11T00:56:00.003-04:00

Poems

Listen to me because I am not saying anything.
Every day of your life is a minimum of twenty of these.
Or thirty.
Or more. No less than ten, if you made it from bed
to toilet. And then drove a car.

Or rode a bus.

Or got back in bed.

So quit asking me things. Quit trying to say stuff.
All the time, yammer, yammer. Is the world so quiet
that you must elaborate?

And yet --
when your lapel caves in because your ribs are dust --
someone will be writing words you cannot fathom now.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Sweat

2010-04-11T00:10:00.001-04:00

Sweat

Horizon to horizon, it melts me, the sun does.
Sunday to Sunday, I bend to gather what will
never
belong to me or mine.

Water to water, from my brow to this leaf.
Cell to cell, soaking. I am crumpled, working
ever
thirsty, dripping wine.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

That Tree

2010-03-19T00:48:00.002-04:00

That Tree

I think if we lived to a million we would know it.
Not much different looking than the others, but
it's the feeling.

The knowing that of all these, it was this one
holding the back of your head, that night.
That first kiss.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Between One and Two

2010-03-07T18:37:00.001-05:00

Between One and Two

To do this on a lunch break -- it's Hoover Dam
functional on Tuesday, first blast after the weekend.
But it's what we've got, so look at me. Look

with your eyes closed. I will hold your hand, so
thankful to you, for keeping yours there, in mine.
Now listen to what is passing, without words.

To achieve it on a lunch break. I will take this.
Listen to the electricity telling you that we are
a complete, mathematical number that does not exist.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Beckonings

2010-03-06T00:48:00.007-05:00

Beckonings

I've lived a life of simple excitements.
Walked streets where a low branch
struck me in the hair. No obstruction,
a beckoning.

Have heard drops, looking up.
Icicles, for the life of them, struggling
to be what they are, in the sun
melt.

Leaves and water droplets. Hopping
birds, grey as mud. In a perfect world
this hunter after waiting forever lowers
a rifle.

And a deer, fawn beside, munches
chlorophyll. There I am, using past tense
in the first sentence. Knowing it
now.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Grumpy Bastard

2010-02-23T00:49:00.002-05:00

Grumpy Bastard

You and I watched him talk to someone.
Maybe himself. Possibly someone else.
The inner layer of his Egg McMuffin?
Certain communicable properties of his
klondike mustache? The guy was upset.
He had already had a bad day, at 9 a.m.

Basically, don't give him a gun.
It's a Monday morning. He doesn't go to work
today. Nor any day this upcoming week.
But do not prolong your gaze. He will
tear your eyes out, and shit on them.
Because you looked at his.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Hailstones, Finn Field

2010-02-22T23:17:00.005-05:00

Hailstones, Finn Field

A modern car would have folded in on itself
an empty Evian bottle pelted with meteorites.
But I had that '72 Pontiac Ventura. Blue, yet.

Those were days when we ran to all storms
craving proximity to anything unpredictable.
Lusting about the possibility of devastation.

Wanting floods floodier, quakes quakier
hoping the news was worse, we watched.
You gave me the look, I grabbed a jacket.

A tornado in a western county, moving east.
Does anyone need to know more? You
tossed me the keys as we both jumped in.

We reclined on that windshield, waiting
as lightning flashed horizontal. Finn Field
never housing more astute, hometown fans.

Bring it on, suck us on up to Kansas! Do it!
And the first one hit you on the second
exclamation point. And the next, my knee.

Heavenly Top Flites unleashed, we rolled
in opposite directions, laughing, screaming
Lock the doors, you yelled, as we cowered.

Something neither of us imagined, fell down
from somewhere, and we laughed. We knew
then, that moment, that we had done it all.

Tonight, it seems I am dying in this bed.
And the thing I know, as I leave all, is that
your hair is wet, and you want me to Lock --

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Shift

2010-02-20T01:16:00.016-05:00

Shift

I always slow down for the orange
so I can stop at the red looking up.
Look up and see the inner blue glow.
The flower pots hanging still moist
from times we watered those plants.

You lifted your arm once to throw an
empty wine glass but I saved you from
your own eviction. You stumbled back
backwards hitting your sweet head on
that very pot the one that is - Red

light - Was a time I had a key to
that glow. Dangled from this ignition.
I had a key and I would park there.
Right there. I accelerate. Driving on
for the red has now turned to green.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Pleiades

2010-01-29T23:12:00.003-05:00

Pleiades

Who drives 50 miles to see kittens? We did.
You recall, I even packed a sandwhich or two.
The superfluous "h" denotes extra ham.

Admittedly, a bit of a whim. Who needs a cat?
We did, apparently. If your left eyebrow was
13% more plucked I would've missed the hint.

You wanted a male, and he was the only one.
Seven sisters squirming. Driving back, that
cloudless night in May, the name came to me.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Reasonable Facsimile

2010-01-28T23:31:00.004-05:00

Reasonable Facsimile

Back in the day, and admittedly, you were not born yet
but I was already past high school, college, and worried
that my urine was trickling slower than last year they had
contests where you did not even need the original form.

I forget [Alzheimer's?] what it was called but it
was as if they were going to trust that you had seen the
factory model. And somehow misplaced it. Here, just
take this piece of paper. Get a pen. Sit down and --

There was a time when I could have spelled my name
and yours in that very snowbank, glistening golden.
With punctuation. But time marches on. Things
-- change that empty space there into what they call a

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Sleep

2010-01-22T00:07:00.002-05:00

Sleep

The first effect is gravity. The situation
of being sideways. One with the horizon.
As Heart says That's more like it
Brain tells hundreds of switchboard
operators they can punch the clock.

We're going into auto-pilot. Voluntary
muscles de-conscript -- ........ now!

c. Ciprianowords Inc. 2010

The Upright Position

2010-01-16T01:42:00.007-05:00

The Upright Position

I knew it was ten without counting. Because
instantly I knew everything. The cabbie that
hit me would die from a heart attack twelve
years from now. Huffing and puffing, yelling
in whatever language, I saw him dialing on
his cellphone -- and a volcano fuming away.

Squares sort of revolving, and as they spun

Coming out of a homeless shelter throwing
a sandwich against the curb shouting, Fuck!
Stale! Seeing me, the same man pointed
laughing. And a baby was crying in a crib.

they became triangles, and now ten perfect
spheres were the backsides of the squares.

A girl lit a candle and stuck it in the neck of
a wine bottle. Sitting on the floor she moved
a ruby-red gem on a game board and a man
cried Damn. A pilot flicked a switch as eight
wheels came out of the belly and a steward

I realized, I guess, in that eternal moment
that there are no shapes -- only angles.

told a nun in full habit to return her tray to

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Ground Zero

2010-01-09T22:42:00.003-05:00

Ground Zero

Where the towers had been we walked
Groves and I did The steel frame in
scattered shards here and there jutted
like a menacing stegosaurus Dead
from a bout with mathematical perfection

We spoke little knowing that worse would
pounded not into cactus and dirt days
hence but people be dropped Silent we
listened to sand turned to green glass
break apart under our boots

From there to the transport his hand
was on my shoulder Every step an echo
that this damn crunching is what the
earth sounds like when it cries On a
fuck-hot afternoon July of 1945

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Periphery

2010-01-09T00:14:00.004-05:00

Periphery

Thankfully Puerto Vallarta has Walmex.
Second day in, I bought a racquet there.
Might have been your skirt, your mane,
or the way both bobbed, swaying, bringing
the corner of my eye to the balcony.

Third day, I was out there with my Yonex.
Walking around, waiting for no-one, while
the ball-machine spat yellow missiles.
Nothing got past your Prince. On a bench
I died death after death. Sweating.

Fourth day, fifth. I'm sitting there dissecting
every grunt. You bent to tie a lace, and I
leaned over heaven's banister. Without
looking left, you caught that bullet in your
hand. And I knew, I should go now.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010.

The Pines

2010-01-02T23:40:00.003-05:00

The Pines

After the break, when she said it’s over
he found himself often among the trees
surrounding Pink Lake. But he was never
alone. Two boots, two legs, but never a
breath he took, without her.

It was the green needles, piercing him.
Smell is the sense that most reminds.
But he did not think this as he walked,
he just breathed, in and out. Knowing –
do not go home just yet. -- Walk.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

This Side of It

2010-01-01T21:53:00.006-05:00

This Side of It

I feel, more than anything, [pause] No, but listen. To continue to misunderstand each other as we've been doing this whole time it's just / it seems so childish. [pause] OK, but isn't it possible to you that I felt the same? [pause] About you, yes, the way you were -- [pause] Admitted. Conceded. You win that one. But what do you think I've been doing since? Striking at a pinata somewhere? [pause] It's not at all what it looked like -- No. No, I disagree. I could not care if his address were Third Crater, Mars. In fact, I wish [pause] Yes. I know where that is. [pause] I can be there sooner than that.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Thursday: 1:08 a.m.

2010-01-01T20:56:00.008-05:00

Thursday: 1:08 a.m.

Uncanny how I looked up, not needing to know
the time. Sensing the hands unmoving
minutes later, my gaze confirmed it.

Nothing a new battery can't fix, and so
in one goes. Later, pages later, I glance.
Has the world stopped spinning?

I smile because I've outlived this device.
But when does the parade start?
One second I will exhale myself.

Tickless, tockless.
Not -- knowing -- what --
-- time -- it -- is.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2010

Dragon

2009-12-27T22:46:00.006-05:00

Dragon

I thought I will awaken.
And when I do, the rooftops
will be above me.
Those we swooped over.

Rolling, hugging my pillow
everything would make sense.
Fall into another adventure
perhaps -- But.

Why is this blood
The credits would roll now.
dripping from where I pinched
my arm?

Upon these green scales.
And the houses. The village.
We are so above everything
as lightning flashes.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Poof

2009-12-27T01:01:00.005-05:00

Poof

"The gist" is an interesting phrase.
Gist. What people mean is, Hey! The
crux of the matter, or The point is,
etc. Within the superfluity, lies this.
Or, What granny's really sayin' is...

So, forgive my confusion. Surely tonight
when Cherise brought that third Collins
and you said I am done painting you
Austin, you didn't mean, you didn't mean,
what I mean is, you were not saying --

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Ten and Shorter

2009-12-26T23:36:00.004-05:00

Ten and Shorter

Is it wrong for us to be in love?
I mean, you're taller and eleven.
I'm ten and shorter.

That first dinner I guessed it.
Your mother had to bring you.
My father, me.

Day after day we're on our own.
Well, when school's out
and they work.

I have never been happier.
One day I will tell you.
But -- not today.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Necessary

2009-12-15T23:22:00.003-05:00

Necessary

You want to know the very thing
I don't. And so, when I back away
don't get closer. Have you never
read a single psychology book
or article? Something advising
that the defensive devices of the
average human evolved because
they were necessary?

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

The Gentle Hug

2009-12-13T22:15:00.003-05:00

The Gentle Hug

Ten years on Dad, I feel again the strength.
The weakness around my neck. Power of
the gentle hug. The water in the corner of
your eye. What I would give now to see it
reflect
the bales of hay, or the perch caught.
The spoon in the tea, the oil changed,
the ghost seen, the garden gardened,
or Helen discovered.

The phone answered. The clink of you
dropping screws into a jar labelled "screws".
Re-aligning that pendulum. Once I awoke
in the night. At the end of the hallway
I saw you cracking hazelnuts as though
only the snow falling outside knew
neither of us were sleeping.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

He or I

2009-12-06T20:53:00.003-05:00

He or I

The world, life, affords us a few.
But more likely, less. One.
One that becomes half a poem's
title. That person you hope dies
after you do.

You could not bear it, the loss.
In utter selfishness, you wish grief
upon him. May the burden of
eulogy, be his. Even then,
make it quick.

We dragged nothing in life further
than it could go. Don't change that.
Please? No hearing ear would discern
the subtleties. When only what was,
is.

c. Ciprianoword, Inc. 2009

Directions

2009-12-01T23:11:00.002-05:00

Directions

I like the way there was that void under the floor mat
for empty beer bottle placement, and the launching
of other detritus. Your Valiant was a sturdy vehicle.
Built for adventure. Hell, it was true to its name.

Brian, do you remember the McDonald's Drive-Thru
on a wintry south Albert night? You recited an army
sized order as I folded the back license plate in half.
Handing me the bag of burgers, you floored it.

But we floundered on a patch of ice -- the car slapping
the wall as I yelled at Jesus. Then [miracle] we were off.
North as Alaska. And I laughed so hard the floor mat
was gone. White dotted lines, zipping past that hole.

More to the right! More to the right!

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Parry's Paragraph

2009-11-30T00:12:00.003-05:00

Parry's Paragraph

Two doctors with clipboards clippety cloppity.
Hearing, the last sense to leave, hears them
ask something in that unlit tunnel. Mr Parry,
we were notified. You have some words that

I will be cutting through to. You. I will be cut.
I will be cutting. -- Through. Through. I will
be. I, Will, will be cutting through to you. I will
be using my fingers to --

you mentioned to Nurse Millicent. You wanted
these sent to an L.B. Is that correct? Address
is recorded? I think he's gone. He is. Lips were
moving but I got none of that, did you? No. No.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Bounced (At Chesil Beach)

2009-11-27T00:16:00.005-05:00

Bounced (At Chesil Beach)

The sun. The eyelid of it, was shutting.
And we, nowhere near done discussing
Hardy's relentless pessimism, were waxing
inarticulate, when you kicked that thing.

It floundered and flounced, somersaulted,
bounced. And landed on another rock,
as we very nearly stopped, and did not.
It was the walking on I shall not forget.

As though you had not defied gravity, nor
thrust one being upon another, neither
concave. Rounded, these met, shivering,
at their polar regions, and stayed.

What I love is that you said nothing. Nor
did I. Our held hands blessed your cairn,
as fireflies heard of Tess, Angel, and
Stonehenge, for [perhaps] the first time.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Mom's Rhubarb Pie

2009-11-22T21:05:00.002-05:00

Mom’s Rhubarb Pie

Who would think that green dragon wings
in the garden corner, clustered in a coven
could be attached to something so tasty?
Purple stalks hidden by this unruly canopy.
Bite one and consider the artistry needed.
Slicing, sugaring, syrupping, spicing –
A flaky crust must then be conjured, and all
baked into existence.

Tonight, at a whim, I walked into Memories.
Known for their desserts.
At a window seat I sipped a Monte Cristo coffee.
The glimpsed mile-high imposter on display
danced in my head, but I did not take her hand.
Did not order a slice. It would not be as good.
Could not be, as good.

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009

Like A Runway

2009-11-18T23:47:00.003-05:00

Like A Runway

Does heavy cloud cover mean the game is off?
They have instruments, even instinct, been-here-before
to guide them. Flying blind, there are few unknowns
really. Barring divine intervention, this hotel will go
where they put it. Delta-192 clear on Apron 11-B, Over.

The only way these 2,400 miles have been predictable
is repetition. The walkway is slowly extended toward
the door. Soon, someone who failed high school will
usher us onward, and we'll go. Honey, nothing is perfect.
But, as I lick your knees, your inner thigh, and upward,

everything that is happening, eyes closed, is --

c. Ciprianowords, Inc. 2009