BEFORE

BEFORE

I read the poetry
of the dead

which I would not
recommend
to anyone

for what
business
do they have with us
who live?

what trade in, what purchase
of
    their defunct ideas

for
everything changes
moves so fast you
are no longer left
in any position
to recollect
    things
that were;
all that was

and so
     we are
      so much the better
for not
knowing about them

better
not to let their words
trouble us
let us contrive
                  to forget

erase
    
      take out of
the picture completely

I read the poetry
of the dead

their
dead poetry

disturbing the Hell
out of me

WAYSIDE


WAYSIDE

the worst ones
that fell by the wayside
had to be poets

what other conclusion
can we come to?
what wealth do they bring
unto themselves
and unto all of humanity

with words and lines
well beyond the general reach?

I think about
why this
    should be so, plainly
it seems to resist explanation

this compulsion to
act otherwise, play
in a different key
sing
   a different song

so far beyond my comprehension
I have to reach for
the oddest of all metaphors
to get my head around it

AND TO LOVE

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