Category Archives: 1, poem, poetry,

ANTHONY

ANTHONY

every which way
you were
a better human
being than me

found time to
send me
a birthday message
was planning for me
to fly from
Manchester
spend time with
you on
Manhattan island
celebrating New York

and that house where you
lived where
everything happened.
(wherever you were
everything
seemed to
happen)

Professor Emeritus (seriously
outranking me) out
there in
Kentucky

postcoloniality, ecology,
the political
landscape of
the South African novel

so kind
to me and I let our friendship
drift our connection
dither

and now looks like
whatever it means eight
years ago
you slipped off
the radar
I know what I fear it
might mean

one of the best
no longer
around
that laugh, that kindness
no longer here

BUT NO

BUT NO THANKS

thanks
but no

thanks

put way the glue,
the tape, the tacks
there is
no
quick fix here

might as well
look at the likeness
we how slap-
dash the thing
got crafted

damaged
beyond repair

and you in what
might pass for
artistic agony

crying out
in self-destructive rage

your wounds
my wounds

there’s all you know
about representation

all you feel
about transferability

WHERE THERE WAS

WHERE THERE WAS

where there
was hair

now only
a scrap of gray

scraping
of steel wool

she called me Adonis once
looking down from Olympus

in need of
worship, a fix, mortal love

sad play
on the mythology
the love for
one such
by Aphrodite

how close we came
to happiest transgression not
perfect
     re-enactment
is thing could only
trust to
the years
    to make clear

yesterday
     we laughed about it
feeling about as far from
goddess plus Adonis
as we
     might possibly be

wizened by time
every word weighted
a deeply
    considered miracle

what passing now between us
compacted by interpretation
upon interpretation

everything
     every trivia aspiring
at that moment
to satisfy
     epic proportions

and here we are
for what it is worth
for what
we are worth

brought to this moment
of measure, of
         considered forgiveness

acceptance of
all things

though I could have then
so should have then

asked for more
           could not
ask
for more

THEY

THEY

they were pretty sure
you were fixed
for all eternity

but I felt
in my bones
you would go
wandering again

your unsettled soul
foreved ramblimg
needing to
fiind the anchor
you could never
be
  nor provide

the logic here
pretty crippling
      and so I pray
our lives
  never
again cross

unlike this time
no more
    such a time