sometimes i wish
i could talk to you in capitals
because – you know – they're so much BIGGER
and sometimes things are just
too good to be true
and as bizarre as the photo in which
marilyn is reading joyce
and as paradox as the race
between achilles and the tortoise
just like that dream you have
of a perfect life
without a reason to hide
without a reason to write

your eyes are filled with fear
that you have known before
that out of the dark ocean
sharks will jump upon the shore
- but good things never end

i keep wearing my 'nerve bible' t-shirt here,
halfway between heaven & my memory
here, where i keep a candle burning
in my window every night
here, in the little lighthouse
for a ship that went down long ago
sunken with torn sail
and crushed by a whale

your eyes are filled with fear
that you know from your past
that on the way from hand to mouth
god will fall into the dust
- but good things never end