Noun that I've been watching (93)

stage.

smooth finish.
process meets
encore.

the wood itself
breathes, I tell myself.
the polish and the scratch(es)
mingle to yield

perfection like mother
used to make.
honestly, if there are windows,
they are stained
glass. ornament.
one does not see
through.

"if I had an obstacle" (replace
the word at will)
I'd spray dis-
infectent there.
I'd hesitate to share.

I would e-
radicate the focus
on that mythy
little fortress.

now, going on Monday,
I am a citizen again.
I move in-
to routine. the route
downtown is in my skull,

one the one side,
where the other brain
resides.

Noun that I've been watching (92)

restraint

I live with-
out for the du-
ration.

why must I
revisit the place
of failure,

at night when
I can barely
distinguish faces

that no longer
know me. I consider
whether to explain

who I am
versus who I used
to be.

is it worth
it? I cannot e-
lapse like time.

disappointment of not being
known equals
disappointment of letting people

down. I release myself
from past tense.
I don't believe in

forgiveness for
a moment. foregiveness
unequal to a moment

does not last.
I have outlasted
my behavior that does not

typify my lifeline.
my life since
my mistakes shoulders

the deficiency I carry
through pale fields
of new growth

I can barely see.
I barely see my breath
each morning.

each morning
I barely breathe
the answers

to my questions.
I have stopped asking
questions. I try to coast

I try to re-
invent, I try to
live wthin

my means, meaning
uninterrupted notice
of the seen.

Noun that I've been watching (91)

committee.

are you alone, I ask, when I call,
hoping to be (thus) alone with you.

now there are two of us: Dame Agatha
in reverse, so we can talk.

whatever we agree, it will be thinner
than its firstness; weaned of singularity.

if there were more than one of you,
I would be more in love, the theory goes.

transposition is the beginning of something
unintended as a consequence of unpaid attention.

the committee will come to (order).
your honor, I would like to register an emotion.

and so goes the day, the daylights.
we might as well be married (to each other).

between us, there is no semplance of other.
we unwittingly continue as we are.

Noun that I've been watching (90)

cigarette.

I saw a woman just outside the building
where I buy organics beets for weekly soup.

she released a whistle of fog colored smoke
I liked. I still like its scent, despite

the roster of prohibitions. sheepish yes
bequeathed to my party favored life before

this onset of blessed purity
for which I prayed.

is it armistice day? I feel as though
the woman with the cigarette shares

the celebration and the disappointment
coming through my pores.

we have not spoken, I just watch
what she is doing, as if

present tense were simple
and accessible and full of unvetted bravery.

Noun that I've been watching (89)

cradle.

anyone can be a chaperone.
tonight, the broadcast
questioning the bell curve
will not be shown.

in its place, vespers
will shadow the child
beneath accoutrements
holding still, while

impositions of desire
remain irrelevant
if allowed.
as will the separation
between the living
and the innocents.

Noun that I've been watching (88)

metronome.

a virtuoso rejects training
wheels. unneeded paraphernalia
lessens the quality
of the full spectrum,
ranging from sine wave to vibrato.

within the invisible fibers
that establish retraction and splay
are pulse points like learned
religious dogma. coordinates
used to describe precisely
where and how things are
and should be, will be,
such that the collective
thinking, feeling, and belief systems
guide the infinite "what next"
of everything that hails
from staves.

a sense of hearing
once inflicted on the species
causes song and silence
equally. causes pleasure
and cacophony. elicits
some form of response,
no matter.

all music happens in or near
the fences. a minute goes by
and another rendition
makes its way onto the screen.
enough to seem a finished piece.
enough to recollect, replay,
retrieve the shock of first emotion.