in a society where to define oneself is dangerous, even deadly
to sit in the sun was enough, to be amongst
flies and buzz and butterflies
bees and bugs and flower eyes
and ferns and weeds and countless clovers
and the hours and hours of sun

to experience in a drift of salt breeze
the degrees of condition
that allow you to breathe

the darkness that defines itself
on the back of your eyelids

the latest izods on the chests
of the latest ethnicities

don't always have to
hold your end of the bargain
don't worry about that
just hold your end of the bargain this time
doesn't have to go down easy
just has to go down

poor child grew up
wit no adjectives for his feet,
no adjectives for is soup,
no adjectives over head.

grew up quiet, moved to a larger
place got louder
attracted a certain type of fame
the ladies found attractive
not speaking of sex here
but likeness

a natural, a real grace
of movement
through the bodies of this life
with little complication

an ice cube suddenly aware
of its own melting finds god
in a high-pitched noise

it is only in the noise
a suspicion
that all that has passed through me
has not been amplified sufficiently

•

I watched the sunset yesterday and it wasn't enough, it wasn't nearly enough. eternities i found in the waning did freeze my sense of time and i could see the math in the clouds but it wasn't enough. i went home and a sense of calm transported me thru my evening but i woke to the regular emergency. it was a glorious sunset and it redeemed more than a day's worth of time i knew that. but waking i could tell it would take many sunsets to set me right. seven? seven suns and their blissful eternities? what number did not seem laughably small? a dozen suns? a month? is there any amount of suns?

40 blocks from the ocean couple hours before sunset the next day on clement street, shielding the sun from my eyes – what amount of days might this not repair or make up for? man crossing street slowly slight smile maybe, wielding camera bag not a tourist. june 18 2014. the purpose of a photograph to focus on that moment that makes the rest of them sensible, if not worth the inevitable fade.

•

the other day i was watching
the sun set as i was saying
at sutro a simple expression
a person in the car beside me
looked at me skeptically
as though sincerity came in degrees
as though some things are too simple
to be expressed sincerely
as though simplicity were not an end
to be sought

and the simple one should be more masterful
before the public
and the expert shall never forget
nor be content, that the skill is a means
to become an illusion
to enjoy the expression

•

twenty seven people moved to san francisco
yesterday. By the time the sun rises again
in the time it takes me to say by the time
the sun rises eight people are born
360,000 births from sunrise to sunrise
4 million people this year

ocean crashes castle
child destroyed for ten
minutes
the ocean
returning
to liquid,
the liquid
returning
to ocean

licking the back
of your bottom teeth
every ten minutes
and sometimes your top
looking for flouride, maybe
no evidence of human risk
no evidence
two hundred thirty four times
in two thousand eleven alone

according to the US department of Agriculture
we should bet
according to the final score

but maybe they're not trying to set an example
you can't just look at something
and expect a way of life out of it

•

if someone you know is engaged in domestic abuse
if you are in an abusive relationship
if it helps to just spit it out
if the streets are overflowing with mucus
if this is not what you voted for
if nobody knocked on your door
if you act on chance eye contact
if you’re not careful
if the fire within is capable
of being sparked
by a last-minute costume
if you keep listening to the same song
if you need more structure
if you are overflowing with hope
if you are never to be taught in the universities
if mankind is out of fashion
if everything has been described
if it is true, and you have already packed your bags
if it makes sense that people know you by name
if you let go of your fears for just one afternoon
if the timing is right
if you are bold enough to risk self-righteousness
if the respect of your family is not your ultimate value
if you have to keep stopping
to record your truths
every five steps
and it slows you down
so that you miss your appointments
if you’re not afraid of getting sick, or hurt, or
emotionally scarred
if it is your job
if you can’t make burritos with dignity