Kevin Keane 8.27.06

Advent

June day: glimpse the moon
in pine shadows.
wait—and the white orb
will roll up the stairs
of the sky


Invitation

after a pas de deux
with the wind, the lavender
beckons to me with its
delicate perfume


The End of the Baileys

Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
I journeyed to the many
countries of your breath
slept in the verdant
cities of your eyes
but your hands a desert
have buried me in sand
our distance an inland sea
“it’s not that I don’t love you”
(how do I hate thee?
let me count the ways)
“then why don’t you stay?”
(but to stay is to ossify—
a volcano, extinct)
Jack fell down and broke his crown
after the mountains
the road to the forest
of your heart is tangled up
with vines here in the
lowlands of our fear
and Jill came tumbling after