Lines for painting on grains of rice

You are the kind of  person who buys exotic fruits

             leaves them out on the counter until they rot

You always mean to eat them       sometimes you rearrange them

             rousing over the bowl a cloud of tiny flies

             sideways       holding it up in his right foot

the owl perched on a just-lit lamppost

             scratching behind its ear       like a big dog

                                            &

Your pencil eraser wears down long before the point

             for every word you write       you rub out two

                                            &

Where the slice of  toast rested       the plate is still warm

            a film of fog       little points of dew

                                            &

Love is like velocity       we feel the speeding up

            and the slowing down       otherwise not at all

the more steady       the more it feels like going nowhere

            my love I want to go nowhere with you

                                            &

I cannot bring myself  to toss the cup of cold coffee

       you set down by the door on your way to the taxi

all day I have sipped it       each time forgetting

       your two tablets of fake sugar       too sweet

                                            &

Running down the street

        dodging between raindrops plump as cherries

                                            &

The ground was feathered with wild strawberries

        I picked seven       as many as I could bear

I ate two       I saved the rest for you       here

        hold out your hand       take them       taste how sweet

                                            &

Please hold me the forgotten way       the wall pleads

        spray-paint face and voice of a damned poet

the darling damned poets       save them from themselves

        maybe it is us they need saving from