A Taoist Gets Brilliantly Confused

	I
I dreamed I was bleeding,
but when I woke up,
I wondered if the blood was me.

	II	

When my body
turns to terrestrial jewels again,
there will be no more time left for sleeping,
since all I’ll be doing is swimming
in the dreamtime.

	III

Late of waiting,
manchild on mountain,
they said you’d be forgotten.

Come, dance in the wake of this bleeding—
you’ll remember soon enough.

       IV

Before there was you,
my pen and I always knew where we were going,
but now we’re so drunk with this wine-fire
we’ve forgotten which way this narrative is going!

Before you, my pencils always
had the tiniest nub of eraser left on them,
all my denial, trying to pretend
I cared about my destination,
now I’m stumbling along with these words
and I don’t even know what they mean!

But then again, I wouldn’t know anything
about that either.

Regardless, you said your first word before—
wasn’t it before I met you?

We should all get seats for this.

        V

The flowing between two
rivers takes a hell of nerve!
But my goodness!
Would you look there!?
The mystics are
coming down the road!
These levees need flooding,
I need a bath,
but the water’s turned to stone!
Oh well.	No matter.

Some of you know what I mean.
__________________________________________________________


Not that I Really Had to Remind You to Tie that String Around Your Finger

I’ve got to tell you, dear Reader,
those humps	mounds of dirt
back there at the base of Collins Mountain
we’re not war entrenchments,
but coyote dens.

Of us, unlike us,
they are not afraid.

Young man, down on river-bottom,
you’ve been tricked again!

Another ellipsis steals fire . . .