rainy christmas days

will we laugh?
cold textiles, creeper vines
spines of the murex purple boats lie
littered on ancient seas
lye pleas to tyrian merchants, these times

see to it we are lost to laughter;
and will we see? twice trismegistus
tried to crash wise with hexes
on thee.

but rainy christmas days now
float our paper boats away
down one gutter into the other
to stay. and will you tell me,

about your turn in the sand,
warm, rays of the sun drawn overhead
gargantua before the breaking tide, headless
pyramid, astral notes, glib mourning
celibacy imprimatur imprimacy celebrity.

when will we laugh,
o brother of night who has met my
every sally with phallanx, harbored
hatred hoary health, hanging collapsed
relapsed then free;

when will we laugh?

when will we laugh?
for I cry now, dreaming play.

for rainy christmas days now
float our paper boats away
down the gutter we clutch one another
anyway.

-jms