protean muse

Sometimes the world is too loud.
In these phases of walking around
as somebody,
the wisdom of the tortoise envelops me.
There is plenty of room
to wiggle
and laugh to myself.
And know with complete comfort
that others are here too.

I can fall safely.
I can feel the surrounding atmoshpere.
I can mourn.
I can sleep wide-awake.
And dream inside your shell
While still moving my limbs
securely
within mine.

March 2009, on a layover at DIA.

Labels: andy acker, poetry, tortoise

sometimes I am in a foreign land.

the water lapping the shore

touches lips the same

it explores my system

like strangers with their eyes.

cliff faces fondle me when I perch

on jagged smooth sentiments

our exposure changing us both,

leaving one another

just as we were found.

there is a whole life in your face

just as there were traces of ancient breaths

during a coughing fit last year

when friends I hadn't met were far from

wearing a shroud of green moss

as I came to them with a chisel,

bleeding,

forgetting what I held in my hands.

Labels: poems, poetry

I cannot avoid moving for my fear of being eaten

Not anymore

Nor should any of us

So I move

And I may eat my words

Or my words, be eaten

Labels: poetry