Jim Larwill

Canadian Shield Chapbooks I.

 

   

              I'M NOT DONNE

 

Are you diamond

                 or are you moon’s light?

 

Do you hold Phobian power

                     or flea into the night?

 

         Is this love

                  or is this sin?

 

         Shall we live

                or will one win?

 

I have no answers

                        yet find I must say,

I rise like a tide

                       at least twice a day.

 

 

 

All you have been                            all

you will                                     ever be

you are the middle                between

the beginning          and          the end

one cannot                read a beginning

or    read an end

only stop reading             of beginning

this without end

there is life        and        there is death

and if           I was going to live forever

I would wait for all                   you are

for all                    you will ever be

but you are the middle

between the beginning     and the end

so stop reading of beginning

in search of the end

leave    the middle   of those covers

and come be the middle        between

this mattress           and me

and I will read you a poem of

a woman         a man          and a flea.

 

 

            SUPER NOVA

 

 

space shrank      and we touched

sand           rolled against the sea

and this sun    reflected the moon

 

I don't      exist

standing   or running

yet     you were there

 

flowing     and solid

present     and invisible

our shadows    glowing

with radioactive    disappointment

melting you     into the sand

as time stuck   in our throats

 

standing    or running

I don't    exist

 

and the sea    rolls against sand

as this moon   reflects my shadow.

 

              DONNE DONNE

 

This old heart's

                                 a worn out shoe

so let me talk

                         all over you

I have no soul

                           only corn bottom feet

a smell that's neither

                               sound nor sweet

an arch that's high

                             a heel true and true

all I wanted was

                           my big toe inside you

now I walk

                    a torn autumn street

march past the sky

                              feel blue and weep

days without goal

                               dawn without dew

end of this block

                              last under sock too

 

              NOT YET DONNE

 

Pull back

                    the veil

                                     of your thighs

come love

                     in my

                                     morning eyes

where I shine

                     across a well

                                            of desire

in search

                of that tight

                                 unbridled flower

a garden

        where tongue beams

                                  touch and taste

lips sliding            

                   over your

                                    budding waist

petals release

                   upon my breathless

                                                  wind

fuck me now

                      or forever

                                 have sinned

 

 

ETERNITY IS FROM SIX UNTIL NINE

 

I am a snake in morning sky,

moon slides down my spine

twisting myself into knots,

I suck on my tail, search for

sacrament of the sun.

 

Is this not endless joy?

Where do I begin?

Where do I end?

Is it not the same point?

 

My mouth opens,

I cry out,

the chain breaks.

 

Voice, I discover

is a wind,

leading to silence.

 

I roll over,

moon steals my skin

as the sun is gone,

 

my belly scrapes over cold hard rocks.