the kiss

every time i open my mind
to canvas
my heart leaps 
“target practice!”
sin is off the mark
god is on your marks
get set
go to the edge where words
don’t make sense
and will get me in trouble
多分
it’s funny how
broke & breaking words
cling
between the cracksides
like plaster
straining to hold together existence
as if that were the grand mission—
until truth
after a long last
dragged to an end
dragged like a dagger
trying to cut its own blade
the truth rushes to the between
and the world collapses
the out turns in
the up sides down
and fear knows no answer
or questions
what then? or is it now?
to all my friend-hearts
welcome to apocalypse
you, the world in you
how you think of you, “me”
implodes
along the spi 
                       der 
                   ing 
window pane
of your pupil’s corset
i can’t breathe—
    this world’s withering wordgames
—like i used to mean
life is a circle
from end to beginning
we don’t like the part we can’t see
until we reach the other side
of a terrifying trust fall
until we know a kiss that means
what a kiss means
and the dying that comes
with kissing me
all that plastering up with jesus!
and other figures of speech
fall away like the skin of an acorn
that had been waiting patiently
the salt of time doing the work of the sea
readying ripening fruitening
in the folds of the inside space
for you
all along
dear-hearted friend
do you know?
i’ve never fired a bow & arrow
but today my heart is a festival
and the target in me
i see you
like the horizon’s widow
you approach me
tender footed
freckled with sun spots
etched in the retina of weary eyes
wondering will it be okay
to drop the sticks and stones
i use to keep the monsters away
in the shade & tones between
the words i speak alone
i don’t know
either
if i knew, i know i couldn’t miss
but if i knew, i know it wouldn’t be a kiss