I’ll let you know when I’m dead

Since I haven’t heard from you in a while

Busy, as you are, with your newfound love

Riding high on your accomplishments

And your fat pockets

How can you forget that

I imagine you’re too busy to notice

Other

Me, well

Almost everything around

Is rubble bones and blood

I’ll be joining the pile soon

To be sure

Nourished in heaven with manna

Not available to collective me

Here while alive

I thought about calling you

To see how you are

I’m not the only one suffering

Everyone in their own way

Silent or otherwise

Bombs or no bombs

Food or no food

Love or no love

To be true

Because my heart is bigger than yours

And I can only feel

sorrow  for your shallow

But  can not justify

You your

Ignorant violence

So we live together

In silence

They destroyed everything.
Our homes
Our hospitals
Our place of prayer
Holy Places
They murdered our children
Our Children

My mother lies
In part, in parts
Most of her hot vapor sprayed
Against the wall
Updating paintings
Soaking into the soft cushions

I’m in a tent
On vacation
Plenty of food
Like “Victory”
It’s within reach
A few more meters
A few more deaths

You’re in a tent
You say to me
Rent-free
I should be happy
And quiet
For the privilege I endure

From the ocean that wells up inside of us

When we are overwhelmed by

Joy, Wonder, Sorrow, Loss, and Love

We can sell the sun-dried product

At Market

In our tiny village

When the People eat the brine

That poured out of us

They will feel the stories

Course through their capillaries

About the long road traveled

Reminding them of the convergence

Instructing them to hold the light

That brought them here

To tattoo the Tierra

With their blood seeping down to the river

And the smoke of their ritual fires touching the sky

Visible in the distance to influence

The clouds that rain inside

To cultivate the crops our lachrimae will eventually accentuate

Last night

I was raven to your hawk

At first you were rock

In the talus puzzle

Later it seemed

You were a wave of wind

Atop the trees

Cascading along the ridge

Toward the infinite

Then that strange blue light

Bounced from the sun

Shone through

The one cloud in the sky

From which appeared your final form

In that dream you had

You beckoned me to partake

In our next fake

Royal joust in the sky

A game we engage

For the dream catchers

Passing by

On the way

To the great thing in their mind

Where everything plays

A fantasy

That gravity was too busy playing god

Holding other people down

You fell skyward

Grabbing a few things on your way up

Your keffiyeh

Because you could still reach it

With the few witches’ burr

Attached from the last time

You wandered along the scree

In search of a talisman

To keep you grounded

That you would plant in a cloud

The dallah given you by father

So you would not have to sacrifice tradition

For all else you have given up up and away

One Blue Cistus flowering

From imbibing your child’s joyous tear

Wrung from the duct at hisan’s arrival

Just like you cried when she was born

Placed in your arms

And never let go

But you couldn’t reach the memory

As you fell skyward

Of whatever it was still in your heart

Stolen by time

Lost in love

Drifted apart

Surrounded by invisible voices
Singing you their songs
From the ash, birch, and striped maple
You wonder
Like you do watching
The gull studded Tierra
above the Ciconia
that the natural order of things
is just what you see
and the why of it beyond comprehension
which is what got you into trouble in the first place
Looking for the extinct animals of the Sierra
To establish your prehistory
To live in a dream you had
To feel what is beyond what you can feel

My friends on the other side
They said you were confused
That you didn’t know what you were doing
That you went too far this time
You thought the unthinkable thoughts
Humans shouldn’t think while alive
You realized what was going on
And you no longer qualified
But you needed another chance
And promised not to say anything
That you would do it over
In silent ignorance
As if this
Never happened
So they turned you around
Pushed you back through
And you are cursed