Stairway to a sealed-off Ceiling

out of time, threaded by minutes

Sealed against and Sealing out

                                the night

The Ninth Floor

Suspended in secrets

In the steel-cold,

Institutional-Mint-Green Stairs--

Forgotten

by the dry world

    White

as a Newborn Tree—

We found

    an Alchemy

(of happiness)

I would have said—

You are Bright

Like Triangles

Red              Dripping

                Nieve ardiente

    The Hour rests

In you

                                Your eyes

Are great cages of glass

The moon—

Is somewhere Above us

Dripping with Ice-Jewels, I saw it

earlier, as the sun was setting--

Enormous as Winter

        *That* close to full

The closest to Earth

            In Seventy-

Seven

Years

(I was told)

by someone who knows—Someone who

                            (Owns a telescope,

lives next door.)

Glowing with reflected Mint-Green steel

shadows of skin

                    Green Clarities

Spinning

                    In an echo of moonlight

                                            coming down

through the cracks

                                        in the roof

Kiss

                My arms, my eyes, my fading fingertips

Place your head below my toes

and close your eyes

Look at yourself in these hurried words

Look at your Eyelashes upside-down

(full of Sparkling

                            Confusions)

we can

(come to no

                        Conclusions)

We can

cut the moon up in little pieces

draw it down through the cracks

in the corrugated ceiling

It’s cold, It’s cold, It’s cold

In Portland this time of Year

Touch my wrists, I’m growing old

                                Fold

My life into a Green Jewel

(here) on the stairs

I’m growing older