the nature of moments

you don’t need me to lecture you about the nature of moments,
but I am drunk, so still, I will.

eyelash width: insubstantial;
eyelash grip: affixed, then adrift–
ok, eyelash.
full metaphor.
full stop.
there on your fingertip for a breath,
then discard haphazardly,
whisper wishes.

later,
you cannot regard the thing any longer.
you can barely recall the thing.
you can only with wist and wine evoke
the memory of the wish of the thing,
but now, it is fixed
in space and time,
and you are falling.

the apex of the arc of us

There is a photo of her that used to be
my favorite photo of anyone
and is still my favorite photo of her,
captured in London after an afternoon downpour – unexpected,
the force of that particular torrent.

It was a week before we knew for sure;
this was so long ago that pictures weren’t yet digital —
I don’t have time to explain disposable cameras to you children —
so we muddled and laughed our way through England
suspecting I had captured our perfect moment,
and as history has verified,
I did.

If the poet claims (w/ audio)

If the poet claims to genuflect
at the feet of the infinite and unknowable,
forgive him his dramatic flourish,
and validate our collective feeling of smallness
beneath the stars.

If the poet claims to channel
the spirit or influence of any manifestation of God,
tell him to go to any manifestation of hell;
he is delusional.
The muses were long since buried
by metropolis, blanketed by lichens, or sunk into the sea.