Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms IX

i was at a big cloud party

where people were eating trains and i

was hanging from the leaves

of a palm tree blowing in the wind

don't try to visit the cloud party

is closed today and if a bee stings

you on your foot try to remember

that with honey may come pain

i was at a big cloud party and people

were climbing in the bee trees

eating honey and when the bees crawled

on me they did not bite me but

one bee told the story

of acacia trees full of spring

the smell of flowers in the air and

guests grew tired and flew away

to home and hive

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VIII

good night young self

i speak to you as friend and confidant

i am your other your old soul

who has lived and loved

whose internal logic has failed

to explain all those affairs

of the heart one suffers through alone

and listen, all the objections

the future makes will become

proud scars from your past

i might venture to add a small

word of caution pertaining

to linking one's fortunes to

those of another look at

your palm young self and see that

the life line remains free of worry

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VII

small world problem is this

what to do with oneself on a sunday

or a tuesday when the lure of old ships

or the coins of an emperor

no longer hold sway on the mind

pushing fingers into paper

perforating holes between the side and another

plein-air painting without brushes just

movements of wrist and arm

made for show framed land-

scapes made from scrap lumber

nailed haphazardly into rectangles

left standing in the open fields

the two of us staring through them

contemplating our own separate lives

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms VI

running slowly through the mine-field

mindful of death ruminating on finality

do people really change events and eventually

evens and odds are thin with meaning

wearing a flak jacket

made from lead and camouflagedwith

acrylic paint and leaves

well that will slow you down

you see it is certain that golden apples

bring joy and good health to fairy tale children

but here in this world there are only

red and green apples posing as such

and our children grow up and old

aware of death and ends

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms V

astronomy clock

rare white marble and biscuit porcelain

impossible to stop once it has been wound

its stepped semi-elliptical path

ordained by god a plinth

supporting a central fluted pedestal

mounted with a circular enamel dial

emblazoned with roman numerals

within a beaded bezel

flanked on the left by large winged genius

beside an extremely ornate ormolu

mounted stylised tree trunk holding

two small books and a scroll reading

design'd and executed by the great

white one with urania seated on the right

bearing an armillary sphere

wishing for an end to the tedium

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms IV

we were a venn diagram me and you

but as our circles merged what to do

what to do we were lines of code

formed from alphabets and numbers

what on earth did we mean

what on earth did we mean to one another

to ourselves to others

some common mystery unsolved and unloved

no glory to come from unlocking it

we shared everything pain and misfortune

an inability to make maps of the roads

that lay ahead you became disillusioned

and real didn't you

but what is real anyway but a

refusal to become an illusion

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms III

missing was one all-american girl

since last february when the search began

we keep looking for her

the all-american girl who haunts

our thoughts with her warm smile

who offers such promise for the future

her poise her diction the inflection of familiarity

in her voice as she describes the prizes on a game show

her introductions of new household products

we look for her

is she a guest on a late-night program

when does she find time to sleep to eat

to undress and lay like bones

parched and drying in a field

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms II

how a wash of colours became four trees

a stand of houses three figures walking on an evening

and behind each window

what stories formed from talk and silence

and what nestles in the boughs of each tree

and what rests or moves below the branches

and from whence and to where do the figures wander

how come time stands still for this scene and not for others

how a moment taken from a life

often appears again and again

some would say stolen

others might say reflected upon

cherished even

Devices For Augmenting Circadian Rhythms

a fairground sound wound from carousel horses

slow-moving trains rolling coasting

ferris wheel lights flags in the distance

a haze a glow lurking above the fray

leering eyes and large-knuckled hands

collecting tickets pushing children through turnstiles

queued-up for a ride each ride makes a circle

an interaction of space and sound wound from pump organs

and barker's cries gathered together

come one come all