Dissolve

for a moment forget

the poets' timely rhymes

unreasoning seasons of love

after all what do they know

but their own rapture

I say no spring is needed

for these fleeting hearts to flower

no fresh rain to boldly cling

to the warmth of their

captured bodies

wet cotton

its in these cold

shaded whites

grays of winter

precarious clarity

of dripping ice

that spark

the easy dreamers

chasing blossoms

dissolving

to dreams

jppestana january 9, 2017

Elijah

I feel

there is more to this

than meets the eye elijah

we are going to rise again

from this low sofa lowly life

face the day together as one

chat up the chatty blackbirds

the reluctant crow

in this heat wilt of leaves

crowning flowers

on this crust of earth us

we will call down the thunder

roar of sky

strike fear in the hearts

of the helplessly heartless

be our pagan selves

dress as lions cunning and king

crazy saints praying up a storm

calling to the heavens

they are waiting for you elijah

if only until the sun is done with itself

until this safe harbor of stars

is safe no longer

jppestana january 9, 2016

Sandia

the brawn of a brown cottonwood 

brown field

a thousand geese 

crane

rise of a 

quaking 

dawn

jppestana january 8, 2017

The Blurring

from this high ground
by the dead tree etched skeletal
a gentle snow crowding clouds 
peacefulness of a tree blessed with dove
hung like dark ornaments
sentries to me
stands out against all things
a tree for a christmas hymn
still unwritten
conceived in wind
if only this blurring
swept with snow
could see what I see
see its echoes
its far away tears
the affection of a snowflake
on a warm cheek
if I stood here forever
beauty could never escape me
and the earth ever her muted
her dull colors open before me
this would be enough for me to ever see
just some plain colors
for a plain man
wanting
for
nothing
waning
in his
muted
elations

jppestana january 6, 2017

The Burn

the lavish burn

eats away at me

her lipstick ring

veiling smoke

inhale me

I am held in her lungs exhaled

her red like rubies red lips

glow like hellfire

move together sinuously

the piano is untuned broken keys

she sings the deadly sins with me

the player has left for the night

the music is his broken slave

still playing

strike of match

hiss of flame

she is a coiled snake

a flicking tongue

the music is in chains

the painful

melodies

play

out

he

is

van-

quished

put

out

cigarette

jppestana january 3, 2017

Cosmos

so cosmo

I want to know

what you know

tell me more about this cosmos 

of yours

this order of things

the unoiled screech

of this undeterred universe of ours

if you can

tell me why the stars are absent without my permission

why there is a blank circle where the moon once shone

tell me if I am nothing more 
than an indistinct murmur

of night sky

the whisper of an extra

in some foreign film

a cheerless crowd

here in this world

chaos of 

yours

jppestana january 1, 2016

Crush

a new year

in a death

of seconds

becomes old

the clouds are ash

volcanic

around the

mountain

white flowers

give their lives freely to snow

it is the crush of a delicate truth

that mends me

I am methodic
melodic

in the ticks

weight

of petals

buried

in plain

sight

jppestana january 1, 2017