Inner Animal

year of the new tiger

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January 24, year of the new tiger

Two young girls staying very still together amidst a smoking disaster. They wait. The elder very still, big eyes. The younger fidgety and restrained by her sister holding her hand. Their field of vision has shrunk because of terror and uncertainty and someone (two people actually) suddenly appear in front of them. Florence looks up, Edna looks at her little feet.

Never forget where you came from.

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February 17, year of the new tiger

Ittily bittily across a rope tight and taught she could inch a shuffle of her stockinged feet edging across to the next level. Waiting upon a rock on the nearby ledge, a vulture, beak ready to tear her fallen flesh if even for a moment she imagines failure. Inching sliding and dreaming of the other side she knows she will leave the bird hungry.

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March 1, year of the new tiger

Chomp chomp ccrunching the little bones between her teeth. A snort (little one) and smack and again the tearing with claws, again the ripping of flesh from the bone, again the sinews snapping and sucking a little as the red juice drips. Swallow life swallow it whole. Only a little more netted, only a tiny bit ripped, only a stolen portion drunk, then she slips into the night invisible.

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April 4, year of the new tiger

I am a bright banner come loose in the wind. Gone.

his distrust like a wild dog looking,
shoulders shaped like regret,
he watches from below
shrinking in the distance.

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April 13, year of the new tiger

The girl is under my pillow.
What color is the sea?
Tommy's wrist.
Admit sin.
Wrecked wire.
Sanded batch.
Weathered.
Wheel watcher.
Wink regularly.
Black hand.

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May 10, year of the new tiger

There is a man standing under a tree
In summer shade.
There is a man standing under a tree;
He sees me.
There is a man standing under a tree;
He hears me.
There is a man
Shaded by a tree
And I want I want
Something
When I see him doppled,
His form designed
To watch over me.
Who?

---
May 24, year of the new tiger

only on te
he time

only on the time
only with her stockings
only against the hero
would she point her bronzed nails
and laugh with a wounded mouth
ragged with weary teeth

once there was a wispy curtain
blown light on a summer morning
a girl tangled in its glory
awash in a silver dream
touched the film once and returned
to the time to the windy path beyond the
forever girl
to the sharp dark copper of today

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May 25, year of the new tiger

when daylight is a blanket
soaked in armor gray
laying silent and chill upon the
walks and waters
i breathe the heavy metallic
potion of it and just
cannot see beyond my post

woman to water
the unreflected red disk
will not warm

---
May 29, year of the new tiger

colors soften
and we spread our wings
your smile comes easily
lazy and candid
we breathe the cool wet air
of home
and shift that slight distance
into easy colorful wild
san francisco

---
August 12, year of the new tiger

Winding over Ramona's mountain,
Deep into the memory we no longer share:
Where do the smells of a single night dwell,
How do they know where to find me,
And what can I give this kindly ghost --
I beg him to forget me.

Sometimes I don't think of the dusty pines,
I don't walk up the short path,
I don't enter the windowed white door;
But mostly
I've never stopped sipping
The bitter hot tea you served.

---
August 12, year of the new tiger

Why is longing so much more fragrant
Than being quiet at home with you?

Is it the rising music that holds
My tears at the rim?

How am I certain
The season has changed?

When does a single bleached shell
Hold a bloody sweet heart?

What stone is a rising spirit?

Do I hear an ancient ghost
In the uncivilized waters?

What is dust, is it your voice,
Or a stain on living concrete?

When will the sound stop seeping
Out through the seams of the city?

Can I step here, or there, and leave
No mark?

Can this be seen, can you see
What I am holding, what I am dropping?

Where will I rest
When the floor falls through?