Lines  for painting on grains of rice

Lines  for painting on grains of rice

Lines  for painting on grains of rice

You are the kind of  person who buys exotic fruits
            leaves them out on the counter until they rot
You always mean to eat them      sometimes you rearrange them
            rousing over the bowl a cloud of tiny flies

How do they balance      the parrot who chews a walnut
            sideways      holding it up in his right foot
the owl perched on a just-lit lamppost
            scratching behind its ear      like a big dog

Your pencil eraser wears down long before the point
            for every word you write     you rub out two

Where the slice of  toast rested      the plate is still warm
            a film of fog      little points of dew

Love is like velocity      we feel the speeding up
            and the slowing down      otherwise not at all
the more steady      the more it feels like going nowhere
            my love I want to go nowhere with you

I cannot bring myself  to toss the cup of cold coffee
      you set down by the door on your way to the taxi
all day I have sipped it      each time forgetting
      your two tablets of fake sugar      too sweet

Running down the street
      dodging between raindrops plump as cherries

The ground was feathered with wild strawberries
      I picked seven      as many as I could bear
I ate two      I saved the rest for you      here
      hold out your hand      take them      taste how sweet

Please hold me the forgotten way      the wall pleads
      spray-paint face and voice of a damned poet
the darling damned poets      save them from themselves
      maybe it is us they need saving from