Author's Reading (requires RealPlayer)

into picture postcards
dropped from some caring
angel's arms into this
raw November landing
heart-side up

beside Leuven's cathedral
your hands flat against cool flags
rainbow-stained by sudden sun
light through glowering clouds
with a cubit of desire you could
reach to that spire's height
or be crushed under an avalanche
of tumbling rock and memory
unbalanced buttresses collapsed
about your feet

frisson
touch stone brushed by the rough
robe of some cowled scholar, dark-robed
cleric whose footsteps yours overlap
through time

it began
a slow idea
as water drips down stained
stone here in this city's learned
solemnity you bump into a friend
on a rainslick street tripped up
by age-old possibilities below gargoyles
their foreign-flavored
humor primed
at your expense and suddenly
you find yourself in scene
after grainy scene
of art-film classics
the hotel window
overlooks a narrow time-cobbled lane
he puts an arm around you to draw
you back to bed later you will rush
into the streets
with wind-borne bells
imprint pictures greedy
to keep all odd tasting words, strangers' faces
you will ring around the town hopscotch
down each newly discovered alleyway
and anyone who sees you now will know
if you stumble
if you fall
it is the unexpected
shove of love
and carefully now
you close your eyes and turn