Danny Flore
now here's a poet who writes in a way that one may appreciate his pieces at face-value, yet underpins them with all manner of deeper meanings that are layered like an onionskin - peel away one layer, and you'll find another. and it makes one glad, as a reader, to get to these underlying themes (even while still revelling in the delights of sound he uses, the richness of the words as they roll around one's head) - making for an even richer reading experience.
Once, a woman that I had never met before approached me and said "I found two dollar bills in the sand". She gave me one, I thanked her for her generosity and she left, not saying a word. Later in the day I fell asleep on the beach. For the first time in my life music played while I dreamt. When I woke up I wrote her this poem.
as we danced
as we danced, with a turn
I saw us at a cocktail bar
we were laughing over my tie
how I tied it too short
and looked like a clown
with a dip
I saw you asleep in the park
with a magazine on your head
that covered your eyes from the sun
it was a day that was so soft and slow and gentle
we both agreed it had to have lasted at least 28 hours
with a spin
I saw us trying to free fire flies
that a bunch of kids had caught
and put in coffee cans
but we could never get the lids off of the containers
with a step backwards
I saw what you said was a memory of us
where we were in the tropics
unsuccessfully looking for sand dollars
because we had heard a legend
that if you paid one to a steel drum band that played there
you would hear their music playing in time to your dreams
with a rock
I saw us under a little bridge
at a little creek you called time
you said we needed to pray
because when the creek went dry
we would wake up
I replyed that’s Ok
we’ll just find each other in real life
this is real life you explained
but like some animals are only compatible to certain parts of the earth
you and I are only compatible in this part of the mind
finally, with an embrace
I felt the dollar you gave me in my hand
and you said, I’ve been dancing this whole time to no music
so I kissed you and started to walk where that perfect music was coming from
and slowly woke up
after pumping his gas
he buys a box of condoms
so he can look in the assuming eyes
of the gas station attendant
to feel for that one moment
like there really is
some Tracy or Elizabeth or Sandra
obsessive compulsive disorder drawing
as the breath of me trudges thought
that is warm air
coming from the nostrils
of the slippery predator
I am an eye
shaking at the stones
of honesty and lies
I wonder if there is light in Rome now
if some lost coliseum
could rise like a martyr's hymn
and grant me rest in a lion's body
in a womb
as the cat's charging eyes
are the only way
I can turn and face the sword
to join in the reckoning of a roar
harvested and polished in the cage
little breeze
little breeze
some desert face
has swallowed you up
and kicked up sand
into your slow kiss
little breeze
you've left no fruit for me at the gallows
only music that I can't hear
which allowed me to surrender nights
blow in Orion so he can sweep me up with him
and I can use his sword
paint those planets and stars on my mirror
so i can look in my reflection
to try to feel like I can put these flashing nights to sleep
little breeze
cotton meadows would annoint you
with their gentleness
and store you up
I've gone there
with my frozen eyes
turns out I let you out of those fields
because I never believed you were there
little breeze
the bearded man on the corner
caught you in his coffee
he's going to add a tiny bit of sugar
and be on his way
if he spills some
I'll scoop you right up
and we'll have a little talk
so I can tell you where I've been so long
and you can tell me where you're going
her room and other mutterings
barren orbit through me
I hear no whispers
outside of my mind
I only feel breath
along my neck
it puts me in her dim
cinnamon candle room
I touch flesh there
and find out
that it's only my own
little girl of sweet green
Little girl of sweet green
In a grass stained summer dress
Feet in clear water
Giggling at waterfall songs that are faint echoes to me
Whispers of wonder beneath the dirt under my fingernails
Little girl of sweet green
I've been in the dusk too long to play on your sunlit yard
My fragrance lost among my footsteps
Little girl of sweet green
Wild berries are contorting into faces
Smug,superior,secretive
They spit juices that sound like thunder when they hit the ground
Impending doom in the drunken swaying tree tops
Little girl of sweet green
Mercy's hushing woman is lost somewhere in these growling woods
Her wings dusty
Her hair covered in illegible graffiti
Little girl of sweet green
My stars burn me for my mistakes
They shake and gag me for my shortcomings
They cruelly light up the sky and show me a great scope of what I could have been
You say that the stars are one big connect the dots game and all of them make smiley faces
Little girl of sweet green
Says they are called "consolations"
I reply you mean constellations
No, she whispers, yours are called consolations
mother and daughter
a little girl
staring at a commercial
"guaranteed to stop dry skin"
the woman in the ad says
the girl's mother
knowing how impressionable her daughter is, says
trust me - just because the woman with the pretty nails
on TV says that lotion will work doesn't mean it will
yes mommy, the little girl replies
the next morning...
the little girl's mother
puts a bowl of cereal in front of her
and says eat up now honey
yes mommy says the little girl
she scoops up some of her breakfast
puts it in her mouth,
then abruptly screams
and spits out cereal and milk all over the table
Oh my God yells her mom
I knew i should have checked the expiration date on that milk
her mom starts to clean up the mess
and the little girl suddenly feels alone
when she sees her mother's french manicure
at the end of the bonfire
she sits
indian style
at the end of the bonfire
there are flames
where the dead asleep
must cross
to get the answers at her feet
drunken healer
spirits swirling
will they enter into humanity?
will her advice
sweep in from the divine
or just from the flesh
where the brew isn't magical
and the lost
believe in the artificial ceremonial beads
a vagabond business man approaches
says I'm tied up in my tie
I'm trying to match what I see
but I'm seeing my sky
she says
everyone is normal
because no one is
and there's light on the porch
where the hours once faded
in a child's morning blessing
then go in the sensual darkness
where there's nothing to touch
but your tanned soul
then to the garden
where electric bees sting
in order to die
to give you their wings
and color yourself
in a breeze of patience
so time doesn't keep you scratching
let it blossom
into water
breathing life
into a summer daze
when i was dying
Carol rhymed words with the wind for me
so everything seemed related
it blew in deep from a forest
that dug out a crevice
which let us sleep till noon on Saturdays
and let us rise to put our shoes on
with no thoughts
no thoughts like
the knot looks like rabbit ears
is sex all I hear?
or this lace is much longer then the other
am I indulging in one thing so much
that I'm not doing enough of another?
no - tied shoes only meant we could go out on the deck
and dance on wood
that we didn't even know was there
sure I dream with a gust of neon now
but the trees feel like they're hollow
and their bark's engraved with no masterpieces
just cold master keys to doors that open
but never lead
Oh Carol
I long for the sweet evaporation
that we never needed on our sun
do you remember my soft, little yawns
perfect and as tiny as what we made each day?
when there were no last breaths
no last chances
and no last glimpses
remember that pool table in your basement?
yeah, we made love there
but that was all zooming and swirling and maniacal
a rush of golden adrenaline that went out quick
these explosions of energy are fools gold now
because they never end
I'm thinking of all the times
the soft felt on the table gently licked my fingers
as i dragged them
and how my eyes danced freely out the window
for no reason at all
Chrissy and Petey
Chrissy at the tip of the diving board
looking at everyone at the pool
Petey, her son runs up and pushes her
she screams as loud as a fast moving car's screeching tires
she falls in
pushed and desiring too
even though she knows
she'll hit the concrete side
birds nearby immediately spread their wings, alerted
Petey slips on the dive
and falls in too
after they are in the water
Chrissy says look what happened
I cut myself against the side of the pool
Petey, unharmed, looks down
and sees a cloud of blood floating in the pool
you bothered me says the boy
when I didn't jump in when I was younger
Chrissy replys
I knew you could
you didn't trust that I knew you could,
you had started to
you were up to your knees in water
then you ran out
slipped and landed in the kiddy pool
remember i told you to think of yourself as a rock
that would never sink to the bottom
the child sees the blood on his mother's palm
and begins to weep
"I'm sorry" he crys out
the water is magical she says
and you helped make it that way
you added one of the two ingredients for the water
to be enchanted
she reaches out her arm
and splashes him in the head with a wave of water
Petey goes to try to retrieve his tears in the pool
don't think of them,
cheer up peter, peter, I don't see a bad apple eater she says
they laugh together
like the little children in their pool
and leave smiling arm and arm
the lifeguard watching from his stand
sees a speck of watery blood on Petey's ear
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