[A series of poems combined into one]

Improvise with the peacock earring
Worn and bent by yesterday's baggage
Turquoise, sienna, olive green
Seep color onto naked skin

Carry on, to the sun marked valley
Of desert dips and waves
Lower and lower, make the back arch
With hands in clock-work motion

Trace the contours, bring ocean breeze
To this silent, empty city street
Relax, arouse, without a sound
Suspense by the winter blindfold

She wore the peacock earring
He wore the winter blindfold
They loved each other
For the next three years

One by one until the house holds two
When everyone has gone there is only you
But you are in the other room and I do not move

The paper explosion is still here
Forgotten but now needed
It matches the careless framework
That holds this anxious mind

I wear the fox coat
And snake skin shoes
Blowing lies from cigarette smoke
Killing the trinity heart

The walls are still bare and empty
Maybe it could use some clean and dirty
And a little paper train along the ceiling
But the clock is there, telling me

Morning will come to wake me
Though I will be sleepless and waiting
And inspire all the most unpleasing
A longing to rewind back to nothing

The open door does not invite
The wall between does not separate
We do not speak but hear the sound
Yours and mine
A beating presence
Low volume, low key
The soft play of golden silence

Three years have passed
I no longer wear the peacock earring
He still wears the winter blindfold
And now I wear pearls

The hand carves the sleepless hours
Into black fettered eyes
A desire to shoot down the sun
And maybe buy some time

This room smells of orange peels
And cups of cold green tea
The clothes are dirty and clean
But I can't tell them apart

The ghost of your morning still dawns the day
These dead end walls ferry no marked distance
Speaking only of what has been left in wake
The black satin river floods where we've walked
Coupled with forgotten one-winged sandals
Crushed strawberries dye the cobalt rimmed bowl
A bottle of raspberry moon, unbroken, untouched
Champagne bubbles hide between the sheets
Your shadow bled into these snowy pillows
When I told you I loved another

I lay in two