Thin Rain
Thin rain
melting snow
I can't tell you
how tired I am
of your back
and my thoughts
George Murphy
poems
I died today
then I got drunk
or vice versa
(a kind of order)
if the stars
had shadows
it would be more night
(question)
azi am murit
apoi m-am îmbătat
sau invers
(un fel...
conception of surrender
see how softly he whimpers now
as the needle that fills him
with kisses, weeps
a concoction of sincerity
cut with compromise
tarnished silver
teaspoon of grief
erasing every meaning
whispering in...
Yellow Manhattan
All night cross-town cabs
yellow black Manhattan
traveling at the speed of metered time.
Surrounded by hubbub and sound
honking their way to curb exits.
Driven by expatriated hacks
who...
Before the Circus
A coffee joint
was where once upon a time
you sat on a stool
before a flecked formica counter
with a tin strip edge
and a gimp legged waitress...
the laughing men
oh memory
childhood illusion
behind what synapse
the aroma of smoldering autumn fire
suburban side roads
softly gauzed in smoky light
children’s saturday voices
rising from yards
family raked
weekend chored to
the status...
Sole Angola
Woodfox in an iron cage
cold Angola box
twenty three hours
of a twenty four hour day
forty years and counting
huntsman foul play
inhumanity
take away his daylight
throw away the...
WEST 18th
We ended
on the floor
on West 18th
She said
I can only come
in one position
I said
I’m glad we
got that straight
George Murphy
The Number of Our Days
Your flesh was a glass chorus
of cruel sirens
who with every touch
chafed the ribbons of my fingers raw.
In your blue eyes
I notched with a yellow...
your name in the bamboo grove
once
deep in green bamboo
the swaying stalks
thick with delicate leaves
joined their lofty spires
high above our heads
conflicting sun
shattering its urgency
into blinding streamers
tendriling down
torquing between the wind
swayed...
Waitress’s
Two waitress’s at IHOP talk
vaccinations between Swedish
pancakes and Denver omletts.
Talk about their kids...
what ails them now, while walking
platters, scraping change
and worn dollar bills
into no...
The crushed cup (Sen no Rikyu, 1522-1591)
after a final sip
the master crushed his favorite cup
bid each honored guest farewell
retreated to the garden
to rend from flesh
undying essence
sever the shadow
of the moon...
