"Layered Limbs" by t. wahl

"Drunken on Faith"

two verona pieces
one red
one black
measure a board
of opal-flamed squares,
wax the new rules
weaved in saltire moans
and
utter thin words
sharpened in
gasps.

too young for dreams
and too old for play
they push away the sun
after kissing his lips.

radiant hands,
one loose
one searching,
the perfect poles
of a tender sweat
rush to imbibe
breath-sipped wine.

drunken on faith,
the canon of Blood,
they rush to
unite
spirit and
love,
and delay
the cleaving
of
eye from eye


T. Wahl - 2010

T'ai Chi Pins

"Edges"

I skated the edges,

none of which

were edges,

of course.

I excised embarrassed shapes

even the anointed

couldn't name.

Burnt paper tracings of memory,

and bleached negatives

were run through a fevered wash

and became slippery

finger textures,

and knowingness

became a tongue.

Unconstant lines were older than Ur

and dabs of nervous skipping

stared desperately

at each other.

Would hungry birds peck

at this trickery,

so real,

so real that

small children would point,

and try all their wording?

Always a re-line,

and,

always a re-see,

my blurry eyes squinting

at the jigsawns of life

and

the nacre of

layered limbs.

t. wahl -2010

"Dream Wadi"

"Stupor Mundi"

"Tree of Forgetting"

EKD by t. wahl 2010

"In the Presence"

her wide-open eyes

smelled of almonds

as she spoke in underline

and corniced argument

her many dimensions

were crisp angles

stopped in

wandering paraphs

a recurve

cedar-smile

ignited at

each paused

stanza --

peasant-struck,

I pretended

to be breathing.

t. wahl - 2011