Thursday, November 6, 2008

The Somnambulist Wonders

About birds and tiny magnets in their brain
lending direction in flight. Do planets pull
at their dreams? If thunder on Jupiter rolls
with more venom will feathers bristle
against the leaves in fear?

What kinds of treasures the rain has known.
What the rain can tell him about being dirty.
What it feels like to be inundated
with another being's grime.

If a few marionettes twitch at night
though their strings are hooked at the ceiling.
If the wood under the paint senses the water
rushing under the buildings and etching down hills.
Are all puppets good at telling all stories, or do
some lay forgotten because their winks and crescendos
looked too morose against the pastel sets?

Will these puppets be revived
in fabulous new dark comedies?
Will it still be dark when
the mail arrives today?
Are the lions and the lambs
shut safely in their cupboards?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Building frame on th corner of Washington and Franklin, Boston

It is a crocus day in Boston,
which is to say winter is retreating


Pedestrians tilt their faces to the sky
smiles bright, coats folded into arm-crooks


Spaghetti straps, sandals and beach blankets
wink crispy from behind panes of glass


Among the roused specters of hot weather
there is the sense of a great exhalation


At the epicenter of a busy intersection,
half in shadow sits a deconstruction site


It's felt as a jarringly playful bone chill and
the illusive taste of vintage shadows


Perhaps when all the damaged goods returned
to those buildings could pearl into a small planet
the huge shops are put to rest


Yet there is nothing toxic in the rattle
of a building being remade, not even in
the ropes hanging from odd ceiling joists


Unbound timber rests carefully as a newborns hair
The sky looks like foil fins of a pinwheel
bracketed by the unctuous steel


It is a crocus day in Boston; which means
it's warm enough to rip down old walls, let all
the heavy foot-falls and hand prints escape

Fragments From the Ghost Manifesto

1. Despite the difficulties faced reckoning a set of rules to be agreed upon by the entire vastness of the dead, we can all say dancing must be imposed. A ghost must always embrace dance as they wander. See it as librarians lick their fingertips to turn onion-skin pages, as dog jaws snap at running water, as electronics birth memory of flesh eyes watching them. See it in marinas and on elevators, see it even when transfixed by the incredibly still. If we lose the physics of dance we lose knowledge of the mystery. To be lost by the mystery is to pass away from everything known, to break from other ghosts and even the vestiges of planet being we hear at night. Even lose the far away thoughts playing like loose specters and lose the daylight.

3. If you still feel the itch to pray, pray to the trees. Our science has figured them to be the closest thing to saviors.

5. Aside from these necessities all else you read here are friendly suggestions and delightful traditions tested by countless ghostly generations.

9. Curious orange lights hanging above highways are the best place for resting. These days, they're the strongest places of shadow. One can hear calamities thread themselves into still star-scapes.

17. We are fascinated by humans with windows open behind their right ears. They can hear antique secrets or sneeze whenever we shake hands next to them. Following one of them is advised if a favor or solution is needed.


26. We enjoy watching people bake cakes the most. The thrill of humans cherishing precise measurements is second only to that of sensing warm sugar.

34. When walking in the ocean take time to watch sunken ships decay. A slow drift. like paintbrushes dragging away thin splinters. So different from the way a body slackens and gathers like a sheet being kicked to the foot of a bed.


40. If you can get inside a telephone wire you'll be able to see movies. An Alaskan woman's words showed one ghost scenes from Citizen Kane. One girl from Calcutta can be recognized by the footage of storms she brings into the lines.


52. We recommend spending time in shag carpets and polyester blends. Anyone can come across these things and shock themselves. electric shock is our strongest bond to humans. When we are the shock we can remember what it was like to have blood. It's important to remember blood.


61. Riding down wine corks is possible. This pass-time is the only reason certain ghosts remember the word 'ferris-wheel."


63. Broken chandeliers are the only things we an taste. They have the texture and soporific nature of ice-cream. An opera house in Glasgow is known to host vanilla, pinwheel, gingerbread and old shoe. We are still searching for cherry, rose blossom, and kayak.


67. Despite an object's perceived inert nature it's best to remain aware of them and their wishes. Advanced stages of the dead have been found tucked away amongst treasures of the living. We do not know exactly how many stages of dead there are. We cannot be sure there aren't different stages of living.