I. In the beginning…

We are looking for pieces

That will fit

The puzzles that are ourselves

We have dreamt the same things

For a millenia and more

Of faces and places

Sought and bound to our being

The other wing by which

We can finally take flight

By which our true condition

Can be restored

Our true selves known

But like flotsam we languish

Amid the tides of circumstance

And waves we have made

Capsizing, drowning, and still

We float to the surface again

II. Scent of a woman

refuse to linger

long enough to be savored

i want to know you

III. Genius, the idiot

intellect defect

mind is steel trap for theory

heart’s affairs escape

IV. A water cooler dousing

Try to smile

When you walk by

Though

Pins and

Needles

Prick

My heart

The friendly expression shriveling

Into a grimace after you pass

Try to talk to you

When you are near

Though the words passed between us

Are carried away

By the wind

Mental note:

Don’t date anyone at work

V. A bus stop rekindling

it came riding into my life

at full gallop

sheer vengeance plunging into my chest

like a jagged mountain top

through a frozen lake

i knew what was about

to happen

and tried to divert the thrust

a grasshopper flailing

wildly against

the wheels of a cart

and then I was struck

dumbfounded at first

by the lack of sensation

slowly the searing spread

grasping the javelin

i twisted it with the ease

of a doorknob

but this door did not open

there I stood impaled

the strangely warm

feeling radiating from

the center of my being

soon, the incoherent thoughts

will play in my head

as my fleetfooted step

transfigures to lead

discombobulated

my eyes widened

at the rider

who wounded me

"excuse me,

do you have the time?"

she asked

at the bus stop

VI. Fire, then ice strikes twice

why do you

seem like

someone i know?

confusing

you

with someone else

makes me

want to

jump out a window