How Can You? (after Sleepwalker)

The summer light, just so,
but which way was North?
Insignificant scars collected in childhood,
their meaning ultimately forgotten.

You memorized song lyrics.
They return, lead you from the bed.
Your capable footsteps
keep rhythm with musical hooks.

Are you certain you are awake?
Awkward dreams fill to capacity
with memories so gray
they appear stolen.

[RK, 2/7/21]


An Explanation of Why Moving Forward is Impossible

Don’t you miss creating 
the sunrises and the eclipses?
Don’t you miss tattooing 
your own skin? 
I reach back and pull rabbits
from my portfolio. The punters
are not amused. In fact, they are
incoherent, nonplussed, and bored.

What could you possibly 
be doing right now? 
I can only imagine.
I’m drawing circles that look like
the flip side of a top hat. Inside
are those fast paced animals
I used to fuel my intentions.

Maybe it takes that long 
to bleach away the old 
designs, the symbols that 
no longer pertain,
to erase the transcripts  
of mountains of mistakes.
It is an awkward thing, to constantly
burn memories on scraps of paper
absolving one’s self of complicity
in the production of abstract thoughts.
You once told me, “Words mean everything.”
I only partly believed you.
I thought the brushwork holy
as waterfalls and gravity.

Whatever your story, 
I am waiting.  
This is a fraction
of the story.

[RK/LSS, 2/7/21]

The Symbols that No Longer Pertain

the tarot reading
the wheel of fortune
the clover leaf
the gold ring
the homestead exemption
the courthouse license
the engraved invitation
the belief in cause and effect
the indemnity clause
the living will
the power of attorney
the engraved stone

[RK, 2/7/21]


The Wheel

barrel hoops bind
baritones chime

a pushpin pushed
into a spare tire

tuned aeolian harps
lack codas

solicitation burnishes
this archetypal circle

[RK, 2/7/21]