little duckling

today i saw you, beak wide open
webbed feet flayed across the asphalt
splayed in escape
like your perilous cries
"Murder! Murder!"
you echo choruses before and after
as your too-soft baby wings fan the air.

May 19, 2008
Angry at dreams, I wake
promising to trust no longer
those betraying visions.
Even in sleep I question (what are your motives?)
and even in sleep my mouth is full
full of dust so thick i cannot speak
cannot dare to let it spill
over my lips in question: (What are you doing?)
How can you lie beside me -
and love another? (You cannot, cannot)
but you were just a vision
from my stupor -
my selfish, jealous subconscious
that grasps at straws,
those thin straws of dream caresses

~Variations on a theme~


I won't promise not to hurt you,
because i know i do
and i won't promise not to love you
unless you tell me to

and if i had a different heart
I'd tell you not to cry,
I'd promise it all from the start;
But things are what they are, so for now
I promise not to lie.