
LESS, MAYBE








AND TO LOVE
danced all night you did
first meeting and me
not yet
on the agenda
I suppose I must feel glad
you contrived to shut
every other option out
don’t know what it would feel
like right now
never to have been conceived
never have to come
into existence
never to have encountered
the day the dancing stopped
ground to a halt
eventually dead in
its tracks
and me and my siblings
left wondering
if this is what time
and children do
to passion, and to love
MCCALL
you told me
about your beloved dog
whose name,
unforgivably,
I have forgotten
I am on my way
to forgetting everything
every day
the jigsaw puzzle
loses another piece
and the picture on the box
must have been replaced
because I would
swear by
all that is holy
I have
no knowledge of this one;
would attest
in a supreme court not
to have seen it before
not to have
seen you before, remembering
good times, the odd
great time
before it all went to Hell
turned cataclysmic
falling further from grace
than fallen angels
ever did
no pride, I guess it was,
that threw our
little world into
terminal
tail spin
the worst kind of pride, pride raging sad shadow
born of childhood pain
beyond our
undetstanding at the time
that time of which
you told me, your your legs
striding through
the veldt, dog whose
name
I have forgotten chasing
you, loyal
to a fault behind you
and me
not in this scene, here
just whisper
waiting for the moment of
our meeting and
the thought
(for which I do
so apologize
that here you are
here we are
neither of us from this moment on
ever going to be alone

DARKER TURN
when I die
condense all
I was
and now am
into a love poen
single, short, to the point
thing of night and dream
and moment when
all our darkness
all that
we are
of darkness
thrives, comes alive
knows
the bliss
of a star
when I die
turn me into
a love poem
short
and to the point
nothing special
of diamond, golden
thing in the heavens
like Romeo’s heart
speaking plainly
not
(as Juliet did envision)
beautifully scattered
and then
if I am read
(if you
are the one to read)
put
what did, what was
into some
forever parenthesis
just to say, remind me,
that I am
thing of absence,
thing of
the darkness now
this
small, petty life that
writes
being so
preoccupied with what it says
what said
took a
sweeter, darker turn