Flatline

Reanimate the word
reanimate the world
cold water
warm blood
stop comparing
just start sharing
don't go domestic
don't turn plastic
show the human daring
here's the humus of humility
you're my fellow breather
I can see
we're the windpipes
of infinity
breeze wind storm
our holy trinity
treasures measured
by the luck we're in
by the trip we're on and on
none of us know
the borders of
this earthly show
how long this ancient air
will flow
bow to the spiders
in your web of life
carry home none
but your softest knife
cut the flatlines
before they arrive

Roadkill

Go well in wholeness
date none but yourself
at the rippled lakeside
put the roadkill
on the fire
leave it there for
a couple of hours
go for a walk
in the mean time
don't wait
trust the laws
of physics
to take care
of the pot
follow your body
where it wants to go
over the fences
beyond the pastures
into the moss lands
there are pine needles
expecting you
rock friends
setting the table
old ones
speaking the blessings
so that when you,
upon arrival back home,
sit down to eat
find yourself
nourished already

Hephaestos

How you,
my melted metal friend,
after having been
spit out
like a cherry pit,
stopped falling
and started flying
during those nine months
how your crippled leg
turned into a parachute
how your landing
lit the holy fire
how your volcano
erupted on every single 
anvil of this freshly
crafted world

Buteo buteo

You mudfaced creature
once standing out 
in the powerless sky
now standing out in
the hut of the river bank
blue couldn't have
turned browner
wings couldn't have been
folded any other way
than for the final closing
the highest of sounds
taken down by
the longest of silences
asking to become
a majestic medicine prey

Swan

Swan skull,

You've been cleaned
with care
by the smallest ones
your head is blank now
whiter than
your cloak
has ever been
your beak still
ready to speak,
hesitating between
ivory, snow or
vanilla ice-cream

Amongst those who know
about water standing still
you're the greatest

Heronville

My favourite hunter,
My prehistoric alarm clock,
My clumsy flyer,
My fellow oak-sitter,

I know the colour
of your tongue
and how the world
turns flat again
when we are facing
each other

Once you were guiding me
through the wetlands in despair
it was you who brought me
home in the pouring rain,
you who showed me
the rocky quality of
one-leggedness,
you who taught me
to love this city,
this Heronville.

Courthouse Wash

Cactus needle
ground me

So here's your slickrock
around the non-clock
the grass says hop hop
and the worries stop
home is the body land
home is the red sand
to disappear into the dark
to reappear into the light
who, tell me who
is howling through the night
you keep on drinkin'
you keep on sinkin'
everything turns white

I am out of my mind
        into my soul
blissfully lost control
                       whole

I am the inner tracker
dream of a Swedish cracker
sleep under crypto cover
this soil is my lover

lizzard laughter
ever after
life is a magnet
a giant fragment
so here I'm standin'
no more demandin'
just receivin'
no more grievin'

cause when the heart explodes
and the beauty floats
complex decodes

wings sing spring

when the snakes no longer hide
it is your turn to decide
to slow it down
to slow it down
follow the compass
put on the north dress
taste the smell of sage and age
have a party in your cave
juniper bench joy
trust is right here boy

Bats dance
Dusk trance
Valley belly
Live magically

Hypothermia

When I see myself in you

When the fire is no longer blazing
for the sake of conversation
but for the body heat
of survival
I grab onto the lifeline
of the willow roots
like a critter in the vein
of the green womb
on its way to
upstream salvation
every rock which hits
a minor accident
where the primeval
journey might end

I can swim crawl howl
and look into the distance
and the future
projecting landing upon
landing on the white
shore of what was
paradise a decade
of growls ago
whipped battered
and bruised
my teeth sharpen
hands and feet
claws which
conquer the currents
and the inches
my mind fails
to appreciate

a woman dead
an animal alive
I arrive

Mud Maiden

To Edward Abbey 

In spirit
In canyon

covered
In mud
may crusty mineral
bottoms remain glued
to my fair pores
native sunscreen
to be seen
on the Green
the roar of the oar
meeting the flint print
of the mountain lion
there is mindfulness
or death
boredom or presence
pick your toe nails
with discipline
if you have to
undergo the pedicure
of the wild
dress your dinner with
pepper and sand
count your chances
of a harsh and poetic
end
dangling from
the divine slackline
where your name means
as much as
the proud cloud
emptying itself
virgin rain
making fun of
a grade A aridness
indulge in helplessness