Matching Set

Matching Set


You're pillow is a peaceful blue.
Dark criss crossing stripes.
It's the one that remains with me
even though it really is in your possession.


It was my brother's from home
now yours from nights
and I hide it away
no one else may rest upon it.


Back then it was a contrast.
A blue streak on black and red.
Then black and grey.
I could find no other place for it but with you.


I had it there
taking it away when company came
leaving it out
only with those most comfortable.


But those sheets are stained
and one is a mass of rips
from the tossing
and I've outgrown what they used to be.


Queen to a Queen.
Size unchanged.
Sheets of peaceful blue.
A matching set.


-Matthew Koutzun

Dynamite Dan

Dynamite Dan


Dynamite Dan
with only one hand
playing with flames getting burned.


With fuse and with wire
and abandoned attire
he's pumping the detonators down.


Oh Danny-


collar up 
and sleeves tight
what's next on your hands-less night?


You blew off the other
each catch blowing a finger
and now you can't pull your own trigger.


Oh God-


What delight
what you found here last night
to light fire in you without your own touch.


They'll nibble your nubs
kiss your arms with no thumbs
because hun, love is your trigger.


-Matthew Koutzun

Blasting Grounds

Blasting Grounds


The utter of a candle.
Whisping and wrought
touching existence and not
but spittling smoke and pipping-
drawing in a crowd of one.


From flash bang firework
or clear calm incandescence
one thing is for certain
the quicker it it's rise
the quicker it's fall.


Gonna burn out in the hemisphere
before touching the ground
gonna create a force
inconsiderate of it's impact
and disappear before calamity.


Oh lasting shimmer
burned a white hole in my eye
the part which I can't see with now
and only around
you're here for a moment and healed here after.


-Matthew Koutzun

The Letter " "

The Letter "  "


Turning the stems on apples
tossing the ones
and keeping only those
where they break on the letter of you.


Counting petals
before beginning my
dos
and don'ts.


Gonna feed the crystal
ore
gonna coax it to repeat
a name.


I don't let it control luck
when I can take the steps to control it.


-Matthew Koutzun

Behind Door Number 2 Came the Mystery Box

Behind Door Number 2 Came the Mystery Box


legs crossed so long
the knees are aching at the base.




feet twitching and dancing back and forth
prancing a nerve
moving like a thumper.


decisions
decisions


bite a nail
teeth like the back end of the hammer
spit it onto the pile.


gonna make it
make me




devil i do


don't tempt


cause i could do anytime for you.




take tail in mouth
and molten magma down in me
gonna heat me up.


gonna make my mind for me.




taking it.


making it.




gonna take this nail pile
and build us something.


Won't be much.


But better than that box
they kept you in.




-Matthew Koutzun

Ophthalmological Fact:

Ophthalmological Fact:


A little known fact about hygiene:
did you know that in addition to washing
your body, your skin, your bits,
you need to wash your eyes as well?


You've seen the bright eyes
of lovers
and the clear eyes
of the wise
crystal
of the future seers
and the translucent
of the kind.


But what of the blister in my eye
and the blemish on my lash?


Isn't that why we blink
why shut our eyes to the storm
sand crashing brow and cheek
and scrunched and bunched
tightened too taut
to trap out trace
and silt?


Oh how it's in there deep,
the muscles now forced it back
further than I thought it might.


Gonna have to wrestle it out
with rushing water
on peeled back lid
twice stung is at once the antidote.


But a little known fact of hygiene:
did you know that in addition to washing 
your body, your skin, your bits,
you need to wash your eyes as well?


-Matthew Koutzun

untitled

untitled


looking back 
i may not have been mature enough then
but i think i'm mature enough now


the ride's heights are dizzying
and i'd vomit up and down the boulevard
but not i think i can keep the elephant ears
and corndogs down my gullet


ride the tunnel of love
and not be unclothed the other side
dangling over the mechanical bull's neck
and drenched in the water
drifting each vessel through


gonna play the games
and learn when i've wasted enough money
knowing that perhaps
today is not the day i get the prize


and gonna get in my car
when the day is done
and finally know it's back to work tomorrow


-Matthew Koutzun

When Simple isn't Simple Enough

When Simple isn't Simple Enough


So to be clear what does this simply mean for us?


What it means is a certain amount of highly rewardable gestures of astutely acute reason may or may not quantify the mass junction of affable relativity of the noblest pursuits conclusively by withholding the excrement waste of said hormones in the conjecture of emotions past.


What?


-Matthew Koutzun

Lap Layers Reprise

Lap Layers Reprise


Stroke me
dip your fingers in my hair
as I rest in your lap.


Charge me
with the smoulder touch
and static smooth of digits five.


Let electric motion
spark up my spine
and recharge my tired torso too.


We lay here wanting
heavy heads on flesh pillows
dancing tips of rain stick prints.


Rest me
let it pour from me
and wash it from my hair.


Oil it and slick it to me
part it and divine it a course
as it falls it drapes and covers.


Red sea
blood bathe
and follicle fellatio.


Let us reprise
lap layers
we are wanton to your hands.


We will dress and anoint
leave our heads bare
and bare our humility.


Samson among us
leave us our dignity
and spare us our locks.


Let us hide ourselves
locked in our locks
and concealed in curls.


Teach us how to love our faces
to open drapes
and reveal visage.


We can
we just are weak at times
and need a moments peace.


Grant us gatekeeper
as we look up to you from rest
weary eyes and steeled up chests.


You are our masters
our keepers
our base station at the mountain.


You are the supporters
and the creators of great men
the laps of the great lap layers.


Let them reprise before war
they are off to battle 
and won't be soon to return.


But they come back 
baring fruits
to lay in laps reprised.


-Matthew Koutzun

What brings me to this floor

What brings me to this floor


It's funny being reduced.


It comes in an instant
and grasps a spot in me I keep trying to bury away.


I tried to cauterize the wound
to burn it with the extremes of grief and surrender myself to the howling emotion.
I let it
spiral me down
and infest in me so that it could fill me up
spill out
and I could start from empty.


But that hollow
it wanted full
and with no replacement
no equal
what else can it find but what it knows.


So in these moments I'm reduced.
Minimized and sacrificed to thought.
Over the strangest things.
Things I never would have gleamed a fear or sadness from suddenly overtake me
and their tiny
all be it
formidable acquaintance with my own experience moves me motionless on the floor.


Children's television shows
a name mentioned in passing
a meal once recalled
walking out an elevator
trapped on a balcony naked
seeing a pattern on a pillow
a sock left by accident
a puzzle half completed
a jar of pickles wasted
a bottle of hot sauce saved.


What each means is only a known guess
a secret kept in passing.
They are only moments etched forever
that grace and dance like moths.
May they not lose their momentum
and have them circle once again.


-Matthew Koutzun

Moths

Moths


"To the Flame," I chant.


Your fire burning high in the field,
wood bend upon stick
and log upon branch,
as your light rivalled the sky
and cavaliered smoke and fume.


I never understood why you built it as high as you did.


The only thing bright in the night.
It called out to the moths you feared so much.
The light calling- smoke dispelling.


You would keep them at a distance with your fumes
as you danced in the heat of your flames.


Of the one insect you could of feared I never understood the moth.


Maybe it was the dart quick gestures
the floating brown and white of the wings
like tiny pigeon angels of the invertebrate world
coming out only in night
seeking each tiny speck of Sun
drawn closer to some inner glow.


They'd reduce you.
Something I never could understand;
the Mighty Sun- the Lion of Oz in you.


On the edge,
I'm catching spark off you
and lighting a glint in my eye.


Reflections of wanting it all.


Eyes so wide
the black fog of fire fills them
foaming tears 
to keep sight in inferno so intense.


But your bonfire is forever dear.


I will stand outside the veil of smog one moment
I have to catch my breath.


I guess like the moth 
I'll never know why you fear them.


Keeping us at a distance.


-Matthew Koutzun

Minotaur

Minotaur


It's me: Theseus.
You've locked me out the maze.
You are twists and turns you've mastered.
Not to trap me in.
But to keep me out.
I can vanquish you.
I can remove your head in bloody glory love.
I can stab you at your weakest.
And as much as you want it.
You hide in dark catacomb quiet.
I can live with you here.
But can we take it outside?
I've learned to love in the light.
Much like you knew and wanted.
I can lead if you lead me out the ways.
I can follow if you allow one to follow.
I can vanquish you.
I will.
Let me.
I will.
Let me.
I will.
Let me.
Let me.
Let me.
Let me.
Please.
Open corridor.
Door.
Passageway.
Out.
I can take the violent monster in me.
Take the monster too.
Calm his horns in me by filing down yours.
Brush back his hair.
By taming yours.
Take him in your arms and model him down.
Back into the gentle man I used to be.
I'm lost in mazes without my man.
My man in animal you.


-Matthew Koutzun

One Round Hero

One Round Hero

That's how he works

sucker punches you with love

sets up his left

and then throws in his hug.

Bloody fists flying

fucking up wrongs made now right

ducking and weaving

taking fight over flight.

Gonna bandage my wounds

after he's flung the last blow

sucker punch with me with love

it's the one thing I know.

-Matthew Koutzun


For my Father.

Coward Pretender -or- Sate

Coward Pretender
-or-
Sate


Coward Pretender
come let me know better.
Let me in through the crook
and lift up veil armour.


I'm coming in where it's uneasy
treading on ground you wish still.
Going to rock this ship lightly
till from cup you must spill.


Oh, I do know the answer
but from your lips I will take.
Cause only the truth from a coward pretender
will my hunger be sate. 


-Matthew Koutzun

One Dove.

One dove.


Nesting here.
One Dove.
Coveting forever.
One Dove.


One doves
hold time.
What matters
one dove.


One dove.
Nesting here.
One dove.
Always remembers.


No magic
No hat
No veiled cage
Brings one dove back.


A magician never reveals their tricks.
One dove never forgets one dove.


-Matthew Koutzun