Jah Send Us Poems

We go through this life bumped
by balloons that get gone soon
as we turn our heads to witness.
We can lean on another world.

We’re shadowed by a dome,
can’t be entered, no door, no,
you reach inside your own
chest and rip yourself inside

out by the heart chakra, then
you’re in. This house surrounds.
Or, at least, that’s my theory,
because no life’s well lived

on protection, temp, calorie.
I’m trying to say that I imagine
a fishing boat a half-mile off,
holds my dead brother, same

as heaven, place afloat away.
Jah love put him there for me
to be close as he is happy. And
in Jah love, we pray, make us

green and easy as river moss,
fragrant swamp monster sex,
crowded cloudwalk, cypresses—
early morning Everglades a sign

Jah love forgives. It must be!
Well, my parents despise me--
I won’t take Dad’s crap. My kid
crashed a car, my work declares

there’s a line of people desperate
for my job if I lack the dedication
to spend the hours--I’m at 70 now!
Last night, driving through the canyon,

I think I had a panic attack, not knowing
what it is, but I thought I would breathe
myself away, until an empty car hit
the oncoming traffic, and people

were puzzled how it ever got that far,
just empty space behind this wheel.
Jah love, forgive me salmon scales
mid-leap bright sun, green me

Benbulben heather, blue me
Mohave sky, hawkdive me, please,
that I might be forgiven as the trees,
if poetry might count these days

as proof of impeccable behavior,
in place of sacrificing children.
Send a poem opens us home
beyond the contract of senses.