Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Conversation











How do I leave?  You go out the front door.
My feet don’t work.  Take the boat,
Water is always moving.  I am afraid
Of drowning.  We all are.  It’s been years
Since I swam, back at the beach 
That summer.  You’ve returned.  Yes,
But I never went out that far again.  But 
You stole something, didn’t you? Yes.
That means you have to leave.






Tuesday, January 11, 2011











An old thing spoke to me.
Its words had followed it to the end
Faithful beyond death, 
Bound by something I did not understand.  
The old thing was lonely and vain, 
And asked only to be admired 
Now at the end of its time.
I could not oblige and so it died
Dissatisfied and unfulfilled.
I was godlike at that moment, Divine
And deadly insistent in what was mine to give
And who should live and who would not
For Love was in my hands 
A bloody knot that I had tied
Considering those ridiculous wishes 
That were granted at my birth 
And upon living
Subsequently denied.



There there









Real responsibilities replace the eruptive excitement
And it is all downhill from there.
A man carries a bag and suddenly empires fade 
As if they had never been there.
A visit to a familiar place is dissapointing
And you wonder why you ever went there.
You hear a sound and it is your mother calling
And it is all downhill from there.

















I am condemned just as you are
And so we find ourselves together
Reading books and drinking wine
Dying of a good time in a city we love.
But there is no city, and no you and I,
Just a set of pictures moving in the mind
To remind us of the lies we offered
A long time ago, when we were blind by choice
Instead of force, like now and like tomorrow.