CUBISM

Imagine that these words form 

a three dimensional prism

spliced onto a two dimensional surface

like the world arbitrarily

stretched into an oval.

Envision bodies that look

the same from every angle

no matter how you twist them or

how you alter the seems.

I want to see the universe re-

fracted like it’s submerged underwater,

where up is down and East is West;

where snow will be white hot and even the

trees will be made of bricks.

Let us create this puzzling place and

call the land a collage and the sea 

a paper machete.

Help me begin by fragmenting our ideas

into newly shaped blocks and together

let us wash away the order into 

newly instituted borders.

HONEST QUESTIONS

What is Christianity full of passivity?

What is community with people of complacency?

What is joy dependent upon happiness?

What is sending if it is sedentary?

What is forgiveness with forgetting?

What is love when it’s only reciprocal?

What is sacrifice when it is easy?

What is praise if it isn’t prayerful?

What is commitment along with compromise?

What is discipleship without discipline?

What is baptism when you keep breathing?

What is life without constant dying?

ROMANCE PART 2

You realize how austerely trivial it is 

to change your outfit twice and again

and so unnaturally significant that you

always have to move across the room

You hate a clock since it sometimes stops

and jumps hours at a time and time becomes

arbitrary like it does in eternity

as you compete with modernity

You want to dream out loud so that all

can hear how great it is to be awake and you

hate to sleep since it robs away

the precious banters of the day

You want to pour over two coffees

at a café and never stop speaking because 

you never have to worry that you will

become steady, bored, tired or still

You are truthfully waiting to lose your mind

because you fully embrace your folly

as you position a final stance

when you experience your first romance.

ROMANCE PART 1

When the motivation to wear your best tie

is tied to the reason you always go to sleep late

and why you gravitate to one side of the table

instead of staying where you were first able

When hours can both slow down and speed up

in your time together because you think of each

movement like the right step to a swing-dance

and every touch like an opportune chance

When dreaming is no longer a depressing topic

that you are ashamed to speak of but is that

which you must reasonably consider because

reality is no longer bitter

When you look for every common thread

to talk about despite its irrelevance and you

consistently consider competition a threat

to the attention you strive to get

When you are truthfully unaware of how to act

because you finally feel warm and happy

and are pummeling into an emotional trance,

you are finally experiencing your first romance.