Initiation

So, the forest fairies embraced her elbows
 led her to the enchanted stream
 baptized her in cool water
 down
          down
                   down

With held breath, stammering, she watched
 the color of her hair flow into the river
 the blush of her checks flow into the river
 the ruby of her lips flow into the river
 freckles, one by one by one
 the glow of her skin flow into the river

Crystalline, transparent, she became
 one with the river
Invisible flowing wings pushed her
 flying
 breaking the surface
Her body jumped back onto her
 and she recovered in her nymphs’ arms
Sister

The Art of Action and Being

In my desire to embrace the world,
embrace for love, for safety,
no, not for love — so chilling,
for safety, I conceive the world determinable,
employ science and social contracts,
morals and power,
all for my well–intentioned designs

Do not go coming around bringing up the ghost of love
to haunt my bones,
to turn my castles in the air to dust.
I’d have to give up everything
science cannot calculate,
contracts cannot account for,
morals cannot heed,
power cannot glory in its deeds,
only that I may look in your eyes
and know you

the factory belts overflow untended
the stocks: lost opportunities
my work hours fly by
just to gaze at you

my research and masterpieces
ring hollow
and it is so important
to do
Bah!
you,
tormenting me
to look upon you
I howl,
shiver like a child in my toddler shoes

With what crazy faith you do tempt me to my insanity,
Oh God, oh God,
boohoo

The Erotic Poetry of David Anderson

All is peaceful in your bed
As you lay there sitting
with a comforter in your lap
and a bevy of pillows up your back,
wreathing round your head

Sweet visions you entice
Wearing nothing
’cept a red handkerchief
whose nettled florals shade your eyes
and invite in a garden
Dream of bright daylight

My tender lips do gently suck, once each
the gravity side of heaving breast, underneath
and wander down circuitously
in the lazy business of a bee
frantically, humbly, bumbly, dallying

Then that sweet–smelling bud is joyfully discovered
Upon which our bee gingerly endeavors
onto sacred ground
Exploring about for what there is to take
As legs press deeply into petal’s folds
In response to his cantankerous march
Our flower unveils herself in an expansive sigh

Now the stamen is found
and only nectar is wanted
Oh, such a busy bee
so adamant about it
As flower trembles this way and that
Supporting the little fellow

At long last the pollen is taken up
The flower is conscious of the loss
In remembrance of such ruddy gifts
The bee gathers every last bit
And gently flies away

Now the gardener saunters in
For our flower must be parched
well, we’ll drown her anyway
It's so steamy at midday
in burning summer

The hose has been lying out in the sun
all this time
Though cold water runs from its base
it will come out hot

Careless lobs of water
Thrash, thrash, in and out of the petals
There, finally, the hose is fixed
Oh, but the constant undulating pressure
Has the gardener gone negligent?

For a span of unendurable length, our fragile flower
held down under violent, heedless protuberance
shuddering in its overwhelming strength
And suddenly,
water gone;
petals thoroughly soaked

So much abuse for so innocent a flower
and nowhere to go for safety
For all the bittersweet torments
she finds herself handled safely
better off, even

Clouds and Sky

Those lost days
I remember so well
the obscene sky
emblazoned on my eye
driving around
a courier in greater metropolitan area
delivering things of importance
things worth more than insignificant me
worth the rapid wearing–down of my vehicle with no recompense
and, I could not believe that such a bold sky ever existed
how lucky must farmhands have been
we were a nation of farmhands years ago
and the sky so obscene and bold every god-loving day
Fifteen years later, I trudge hours on my bike
those precious clouds god got up early in the morning to bake
startling contrasts and textures
why masterpieces every day?
as I scurry back and forth
as mouse under hawk's eye
Oh, God, I felt so privy to those secret havens in plain sight
mountain majesty of wondrous delight
thumb in the pie
After so many unexpected enthrallments
feeling so small
so small

Deep Gaze

I see you
beauty of my beautiful world
a gentle desire to know you deeply
exploring your depths.
I lose my world in yours.
Are you part of my world
or I yours?

Sea Creature

I remember when I was a child
Wading into the ocean
devoured by the waves
pulled under by the undertow

I swam and swam for breath
until the realization dawned on me
I no longer knew which way was up
tumbling around and around, head over heals

I let go
Stopped worrying
entrusting fate to eventually yield back to me
sunshine, dry breath

A strange peace
so long
I find myself
looming in the depths
sea creature in a vast, uncharted kingdom

Partaking

Dogs are natural scavengers
 They have the stomach for it
I remember Beth swallowed some
 decaying squirrel whole
Its tail hanging out of her mouth
 for the longest time
Nothing ever became of it

I always wondered where the deer went
 when they died
The forest was always
 a pantheistic land of wonder
As the snow tickled our noses
 Lexie was nowhere to be found
I laughed it off and yelled for her
 Then yelled and yelled
 Then ran and abruptly stopped
Lexie tenderly edging toward the deer carcass
 Shy even
Then the bump on the bridge of her nose appeared

A couple months later,
 in an unusual spring heat
Lexie leaves the trail
 With a straightforward earnestness
We walk an unfamiliar side–path
Cross an undiscovered stream
Another carcass prone to the sun
A vulture crouched in an adjacent tree
Impatient for our departure

The bump on her head reappeared at the top
 Lexie was given two months to live
And, at that other river,
 Her jaw too weak to grip
 the large branches so much a part of her
This third carcass
 Peaceful, laying amid the thorns
One does not begrudge one condemned to death
 to take their fill of death
Not one lick of impropriety

We filled our days with walks
We denied ourselves none of our walks
 We partook
  Peace