[in the bland absences]

for rachman

in the bland absences
scour a sense of you lost
in blue sapphire time,
time too green
for annoyances,
too blue for heaven's
anvils to hammer
the grilling of a lifetime's
conveyances:
we measured rain
in your departure
and raised Cain
till your return
to the nether,
a bliss burned into
the anthem of you
sung across the hearts
in your visionary
labyrinthine
karaoke epiphanies
in the vestal night:
seam the pleasures,
annotate the calculus
of your inert glimpses
down the long Toto
dance of your sly
prancing pony
fiefdoms, heart-theft
of the gentlest possible
calliope'd highway:
I wager more now
in your passing
than the simplest veins
you offer - veins
of gold, of silver,
of dogged limestone night:
sample me
a questing fool in your
afterglow
this too shall pass
& the thrifty cares
will burgeon,
calling forth,
in the end,
your silly
incipient
hounddog-lovin'
Glenlivet-scotching
self.