Solara 26-35

 Full steam ahead, comrades.

XXVI

I didn’t want to write it down/let it come to life off of the page/wanted it to stay in my mind/this swirling kite of internal flames and broken shards of glass/left it to whither in a darkened corner next to childhood embarrassments/instead/it scorches itself free from the paper and sets itself upon my shoulder/dutiful companion/my only true one/long since past the point of a single refrain/a single return to whatever came before its screeching entrance into this overturned room/this mess I’ve made/nothing to be done/everything is already set/

XXVII

When words are set to fire/the smoke is a wisdom and a killer/lifting itself high above the flashpoint of a flame/above our worldly concerns/the sky drinks what comes its way and coughs complicated clouds of sentence structure out over our fair city/the sky, always learning/always preparing itself for the next great idea we feed it/soon, the preparations will be over/soon everything will be the way we dreamed it/one bonfire at a time/

XXVIII

When flame is feeding/avoid meal time/you will see each crackle and burst/a snarl/fangs in a fevered dance with prey/not a single wet eye in the room/all susceptible to the itch/the scratch/the tug of the spark and scrape of each and every singe mark/lining the otherwise plain walls/off white/plaster/peppered with the marks of a flame whose only time keeping is the measure of its hunger/crawling towards what will soon be cinders/

XXIX

More than stupid hair metal/we’re something classic/individual spokes on a wheel that will only move forward/locking itself when reversed/nuts and bolts rusting with speed/with alacrity/we will remain in the front yard/dry rotted memories/a monument to what was once glorious and is now of slight embarrassment/each stupid solo/each flick of the mane/every shout and controlled explosion/none of it matters as the dew in the grass reaches our fringes and sets in/

XXX

What is/left for me/next to yesterday’s castoffs/waiting to be collected by the pickers/dustmen/the trash collection agencies/clandestine recyclers with balaclavas/I haven’t even had my say yet/gotten to shuffle through what you left for me/before/this descent/before the throngs and the multitudes of interested parties scrape the collection for personal gain/before/I can reclaim something to call my own/something to link me from a past to a present/to the future now/and the current then/all/in/one/

XXXI

King and beggar/ascend thy throne to the scorched heavens/clouds on fire again/should have sprung for the sprinkler package/here, on earth/we all stand marveling at the coronation of one so plain/the ascent to a sky so ruined/what has become of thy kingdom/here, on earth/we are far less presumptive/no royalty among us/not in the alleys/not in the dark spaces that sun and sky on fire’s light refuse to touch/wading through the refuse/we are all our own lords and magistrates/kindling for an even greater burn zone/ready for the next spark to fly/

XXXII

Will the molten earth burn through my fineries/I hope not/these suckers cost a grip/a whole band of the green stuff/none of that imitation/performance art pants and off brand accouterment/natural disasters are never timed well, but this was supposed to be more coronation/the scepter is already drooping from this heat/what is one man/even a king/to do about the ambient temperature/my loyal subjects/bring water/

XXXIII

I’ve always felt my most confident when wearing a mask/someone else’s face/someone else’s problems superimposed over my own/the rest is green screen/I am free to be a different version of me/maybe not me at all/to gawk and stare and sneer and smile and weep openly behind this heavy, sweaty material/even with my vision obscured/dehydration setting in/the dizzying smell of a latex overload/I’ve never been more myself/more alive/than right now/

XXXIV

Hello there/hi/yes/this is me looking to speak to you/will you open the door/will you/open your mouth/your heart/to the good news that I am willing to share with you right now/at this location/in this very moment/I won’t even ask for a hug/this time/we may have gotten off on the wrong foot/though I am willing to be your honest companion/maybe even a sidekick/if that’s what you are into here/yes, mother told me I can come on a little strong/but/you’re very important to me/to this entire enterprise/really/and I’d love to explain myself/explain us/to you/

XXXV

Sometimes these feel a little/too soon/too close to the heart of the matter/something that knows me in ways I am not sure I know myself/looking through my soul/instruments of knowledge/instruments of pain/instruments of experience/innocence/music as a weapon X/misery as a balm and a tonic/a body translucent/a spirit on display, rattling its cage/demanding, through tears and triumph/to let itself out for a walk on a day with a clear sky and birdsong/