For Some, The Dispirited

 

For some, the dispirited
wait for the calm to settle in
like dense gray fog blanketing the ground
and smoke rising from horizons
nearly faint and dearly decided
our fate and our faith
waits with it and dies
on the steps prostrate
to the throne
 
I lay here
my hands sprawled my knees
kneeling and twisted beneath
my feet blistered and reeling
the balls the bells ringing
wretched weight collapsing
feeling it out and its way through 
to the place where waking
meets death and discernment
means faking your last breath
 
I awake
pools of sweat conduction
current ripple through to alight
alarms of morning light
and death living in divided shadows
magnified across fragmented light
streaming across my dreams
laying in catharsis
in the stillness of feathers
and the slightest twist of air
alarming their movement
their degradation into
an abyss you can’t dream
your way out of
 
MM 8.22.2026

Reclaim the Wages

 

Your self-cleansing hands
clutch sins like pearls
palms up to the sky
sacrifice the vulnerable
 
Reclaim your sovereignty
Reclaim the wages
 
Your god brings receipts
debts paid in vengeance
cast and swept across
a blood pool at your feet
 
Reclaim your sovereignty
Reclaim the wages
 
Your snakes form a cross
they hang from its tail
not equal in their eyes
the vulnerable among us
 
Reclaim your sovereignty
 
MM 1.14.2026

Saint-Féliu-d'Avall

 

My friend, you wrote to me
the beginning of your final year
you sent postcards
with pictures of sunscraped hills
patches of scrub trees
snow laid peaks dreaming down
stone gates in pastels
your caption in few words
of non-native tongue
a boat crosses the détroit
through the rocks
something to hang on the fridge
for the New Year
 
In a late exchange
your sickness held
plaintive short verses
tempered in translation
and colored over years
of slow and steady burn
punctuated by links to music
tedious and dutiful
profound and deeply forged
links over distance
linking past to future
unfinished writing
ending on fertile ground
between here and Auvergne
 
I checked for you
dutiful yet detached
sometimes weary
in novel bespoke obligation
a conduit between
limitless limitations
in scope of experience
imagining outcomes
and returning home to rest
diminishing cadence
I couldn’t read through
the translation in time
to say goodbye                                              MM 1.14.2026

Just Let it Sink In

 

White walls offset with pale blue chairs
extra padding vinyl on the seats and backs
cool toned and tension filled in excess
filed in sweet toleration of the drive down
a journey through little blue blots of sound
filtered through the echoes of chaos
 
At some point a trite joke breaks silence
fluorescent shine down beacons on the floor
risen voices hushed quiet tones betray reasons
we’re all here again
wringing hands over frozen states
walking back with your name
calling out
 
It’s a small room near the corner hall
I can see or sense a window
with unease and confusion layering
as fog was earlier that morning
in balmy winter there’s just nothing
approximating true daylight
 
Figures solemn determined gesture
steady movement doesn’t hesitate
or pause to bypass deliberation
my questions amiss in the room
oblivious to cues
just letting them pass through
my understanding
 
MM
10.9.2025

My Lover is Gone for the Weekend

 

I feel so vulnerable and alone when you’re gone
when I’m reflecting on trauma and pain from those times
from the past when I couldn’t bear witness
to descending spiral stairs my life sprang forth from
the here and now
 
There was a video from the past so long ago
and I saw myself there within it my eyes red
glazed weary in existence, sightlines and moments
obstructed by futures obscured
I was nothing but a sick patient
 
I lay in bed, tired, eyes are heavy
my mind raced to piece together timelines
of where I was when I fell behind the curve
picking up pieces scattered and stained on cement
it was Fall so long ago
leaves changed and it seems like forever
 
I didn’t know you then but when I met you it felt weird
like you’d overseen the path before
your face familiar and knowing surreal
gaze before me in your eyes
from the other side of the bed
please see me 
 
MM
10.3.2025

Do I Know You?

 

Severed lungs
ripped out your chest
heart beating
in message he’s blessed
 
stimuli it’s sudden
returning in waves
etches a narrative
thread again
 
stitched black font
chyron of their dreams
reversed color seared  
bled along the screen
 
tinderbox kept
wood wept and buried
high cabinet shelves
candle wax and stain
 
Brand in his eyes
forged fires of Hell
imprinted screens
thread again
 
Motion of shadows
within stories of shade
affixed with an emblem
according to plan
 
Hollow-bodied
regurgitate alone
rust on the fuse box
darkness becomes
 
MM 9.13.2025

Breached Idol

 

I don’t want this breeding in me

bulging eyes turn hemorrhaging

when you can’t look the other way

dead weight carves out vacant space

 

Here is a script you’re born out of

eyes glued white sheets drawn down

the blank mask choking their airways

undressing their wounds

 

What is not done in thy name

in punishment for their suffering

corrupt the course and raze the faith

your status idol purity

 

Give birth to a vision you’re part of

acted out on your behalf

blank face expressing your terror

waging worship

 

Here is a script that you’re part of

its tentacles can’t be outrun

consumed and fed and exorcized

it’s never owned

 

I don’t want this breeding in me

I don’t want this breeding in me

I don’t want this breeding in me

I don’t want 

 

MM

8.12.2025