how to melt

another storm warning, 7/14/2025

A PHOTO OF A PHOTO ON THE BIG SCREEN — TAKEN ORIGINALLY AS A REMINDER WE WERE IN AN ALIEN LAND — WITH THEIR OWN CRUEL CODES

Lend yourself to misinterpretation
Con/Jur/d, 7/14/2025

REPUTATION is all that a man has
our exes father told her and she told
us, used it as a cudgel, when she
wanted a chisel, although, to be fair
we were bad stone then, with a

gnarled heart, a fundamental mis-
alignment, misunderstanding, most
thought a world of sociopaths, 

power games, vampiric economies
zombied populations, was the best
on offer, we held onto the hope this
was a fundamental 
                               MISINTERPRETATION
that we were all better than this
(secretly) and reputation by and for those
who wanted to use you,
                                      was simply
a misstep,
               a substitute for

RESILIENCE

often (and you too) we played the part
of a bull in an antiquaticated, thin

PLATES and BAUBLES shop
with too narrow aisles, rickety third hand
shelves, artificially inflated prices
for the forever tourists (locals
know better) and local law enforcement
are all first cousins, brought up

by whip, belt or the far more damaging
denial of belonging
                              AND for the longest
                              time, we couldn’t get

our

SNOUTS, HOOVES, TAIL and HORNS

to coordinate,  caught up by etiquette 
lessons from those who cheer military
actions, believed they are owed 
                                          their shackles

thought this paradise, this THIS
was only a resource, something to exploit
for their REPUTATION, you understand

we’ll silence the birds, clear-cut the 

H    O    R   I     Z    O N

drain and bottle the aquifer, belittle
THE  SOIL and mock your ancestors

to be clearer than this, to do anything
more than point to your essential dignity

                        (THE FULL MOON RISES
                         over an unrippled, trilling
                         PLOP, reeds bend to their reflection/
                                                                    noitcelfer)

is to compromise your

MYSTERY AND MAGIC

                          SEE: all week we’ve struggled 
             with endings
worried what you might think of us,
 let poems go

FALLOW

           ‘til sprouts, poked out pale
      suddenly, GREEN

this is where we find ourselves
when we can only 

find beginnings.

FELT THAT

THE RAIN STARTED/THE CROWS WENT HOME/OLD TREES IN A CEMETERY/PHOTOS FROM A FEW MONTHS AGO/FLICKER/ACROSS THE SCREEN/BEING THERE WITHOUT CONTEXT/HERE/THERE/WHERE ARE WE?

Much love,

Con/Jur/d, 7/14/2025