
Old Roses


Urban mysticism,
a religion of glass.
I see myself in the mirror,
and behind my image the
team watches.
I have stolen air that was not mine,
evidence stored in my metallic
blood strong enough to build a
steel city.
What electronic theology is this,
the images flashing in the cameras?
There are detailed views
of the selves,
the only blind spot at
the left hand.
Competing ideology,
steel towers with winding
staircases up the shaft.
At the top,
a thin and hopeless soil,
a contented yesterday,
a bumblebee bumbling.
I painted a negative picture
of a sun staring at my youth
like Big Brother.
1984 came and went.
My face is in the cage with
the rats,
but Julia holds the key.
My hands go on painting
without color
the surveillance of a rose,
chattering teeth,
an unworn sash.
Men, minerals
fill my dialects.
Wearing orange,
drugs worldwide
sing their song.
Something about lemonade.
Young women of wisteria,
Iron,
Zinc.
Xylem and phloem on two sides
Of the same love
thrown off
in autumn.
My body has lost something.
Bones are in my tongue of power
over the earth.

