1

Knife dagger sword   summer at the pit of my womb
Vines wrapped around stones   ring of roses
Branches blacken across the wall
I roll away no longer hungry   opened by bliss
Years have led to this blood song   meek but not stupid
I listened to the quiet slug   I filled our glasses
Mirrors when we raise them

Nowhere song we hum as we gather glass
Blooming with cracked light   wind twists through trees
See the light in each lantern unlit
Reach up to touch leaves on a curved branch
Give that bird inside me a tree to fly into
Each night we walk through gets darker and fuller
Each fantasy a side road   a shot of bliss

2

Millions of stars is what I call you   a dream of meadows
Is what I call you   Texas smoke is what I call you
Unshakable is what I call you   kink is what I call you
Ancient temple is what I call you   windows down
Is what I call you   licked by bliss is what I call you
Stone dog is what I call you   slow fuck is what I call you
Miles between towns is what I call you

More of those blue flowers to gaze at   more of
The planet being the planet   more of the lizard and
The ladybug   more of what bliss will bring
More of this shining rhythm
More of this broken chain breaking more
More of that field and its horses
More of that piss   that shit   this wickedness

3

The world feels right when I breathe like this
Like a predator moving through flowers
Toward open windows like speakers blaring full blast
No one around to say turn it down   little green blooms vibrate
Like breathing after breathing is no longer possible
A planet busting out of a planet busting out
Of a planet busting out of lust and action and bliss

I’m not the city chasing the field it tried to crush
Into a prism of philosophy and art
I’m not the glass spiral or the spinning loop
The miles and hours collapsed into a cube of memory
Sprouting green blooms that don’t tell me anything
Except not to pick them   not to pick them
Not to pick anything except bliss

4

Stirring up the bliss of the forest   the absurd smile
Turning affectionate   the absurd animals
Speaking in a rare tongue   the buzz we get from moss
Enlightenment we get from decaying logs
Secrets we get from toads   the dirt of my thoughts
Rise and sink with the moon   the funk of mushrooms
The multiplying rainbow   uninhibited daisies

When thunder won’t stop I know it wants to be heard
When I first understood I was listening to the earth
It filled my days with thunder and rain
It filled my nights with clear stars
Ascension is the song   angels play with bliss
Make the darkness seem prettier   dangerous magic
Everywhere   here’s some for you   here’s some for me

5

I tell myself walk farther down that road   the bliss I feel now
Can last   being led by a dog with young eyes
I tell myself change the scene   so I change the scene
A crowded city at night   I don’t know the language
I want to read feelings just by looking at eyes
I want to see how far out of the way
I can end up   I can change the scene again

This room with a bed and my mind in it
My mind is the room   my mind is the scene
A dog leash   a peach   a newspaper from 1970
Snapshot after snapshot after snapshot   a shrine
With too much sunlight on it   almost captured rainbow
Blur of a butterfly wing   the backseat of a car
Your bliss when you thought no one was looking

6

Open your car door at the same time as me
Harmony when we shut each door together
I feel the way you like to cruise around
Slow but methodical   yes is the answer you give
Before I open my mouth to ask the question
Eerie bliss is what the city feels like tonight
Humming decades lace the streets

Green porchlight we stop to look at
Rivers sparkle with city lights
Eerie bliss is how we feel when we
Drive on   nowhere is still the destination
Green porchlight we each write a poem for
Remember all the kissing afterward
Decades we didn’t get to live

7

Part field part house part fence part mailbox
Part cracked driveway part intrusive sunlight
Part chipped dinnerplate part green fridge
All the bliss I scribbled for you   cut and rearranged
Into what I meant to say   what I meant to say
What I didn’t know I meant to say
I tell myself do what you were told not to do

If you come upon a horse in a field alone
Memory of the wind in its mane   roughness not forgotten
If you come upon me   part horse part rabbit part
Wolf part fox   do you know to call me
Something more than bliss   if you come upon
A tree in the same field   a beast with branches
See how the sword fuses with the soul who carried it

8

Tongue lights each word to taste the wind
Mint grows out of cinderblocks   yesterday was a long blur
My mountain and the fish that swim all through it
Expect the moonlight to make you ache
At the beginning at the beginning at the beginning
Place the wind above the meadow   rare flowers grow
From bliss making waves across the grass

I was in the mood for your dog stare   loud piano
The wrong words suddenly sounding right
Global realization   cosmic seeds in forgotten rooms
I was in the mood for trouble followed by redemption
Followed by more trouble followed by catastrophic bliss
Newborn fish newborn calves newborn elephants
Effortlessness   lush palms   your transparent voice

9

Birth is the pain that can never be undone
Birth is a serious symbol   birth is a passage
Birth is the beginning inside a beginning
Inside a beginning inside a desire to
Begin again or begin for the first time
Birth is permission to not be in control
I was in the mood to birth bliss

Just imagine midnight drives
Bliss pouring from the best speakers
We could find   midnight epiphanies
Daring us to make them real   soothing
Street names   divine intervention
Is what we call our car   just imagine
The roads we can’t imagine

10

Ask me where I want to go   I might say Portland
I might say Kyoto   I might say Seoul   I might say Austin
I might say back to the bliss of last night
So we can hear it better together
I might say the center of the forest parade
I might say the center of your bed   I might say
This spot right here where we can’t be seen

Our bliss can be activated just by turning on
The engine of a car   the roads in every city
Are meant to lead us somewhere   a long walk
We take on purpose   golden lights in naked trees
Ask me where I want to go   I might say
Back to the storm playing with lightning and wind
Until the night becomes beautiful again