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  Dec 2020 Medusa
Nat Lipstadt
things she doesn’t ask...

are they things,
she doesn’t know to ask,
or
are they things
to which,
she does not want to know
the answers.

my not knowing the answer to this puzzle,
drives me to distraction, her Mona Lisa smile,
accompanied by her noncommittal “whatever,”
hiding the answer, nearly leads me over a blurting edge,
but for my inevitable retreat, for the true question,
has a  truer answer, that comes as well, 
in question form.  

Why do I,


or do I,

want to know?
winter 2020
Medusa Dec 2020
So little can be known about the other
Would I know you anywhere, indeed,
Not likely, but I hope to try.

Just the thought of you, say the songs
All regrets still cut me, my mind hears
You saying that to me, nightly.

I passed regret but got stuck
On a broken freeway onramp
Between Las Olvidas and Sixth Street.

Might be here a long time.
  Dec 2020 Medusa
Nat Lipstadt
These are the endless days of endlessness
These are the days, when time is just present
There is a disbelieved past, a future unimaginable
Here is the only now, a permanent-present-tensing-participle

Faces smiling semi-graciously present, desperately seeking coaxing
The winter dark, living room occasional lit by one, mostly TV glow
Radiance lives inside only, but well remembered songs cause
Cry outs for who, the what, the needed, we’ve forcibly memorized

Observing winter’s river from kitchen window, it’s colored
*****-dusk-blue, like my eyes, add overlaying images of sparkles
But my magic not powerful, my love can’t see them
My bag-o-tricks can’t bring her sunshine, 2020 sorcerer’s gold

These are the days of endless dancing alone,
Longest walk from bed to kitchen, worn the weary wood shiny
True romancing still abounds, but so well hid, 99% invisible
Even when you ask without asking to be held oh-so-tight

These are the days, riverside, when slow flowing waters offer
No hinting of faraway treasures to be someday discovered
The magician vain struggles to find loving tricks to unlock
Her loving grace, her water-to-wine breathing demeanor*

These are the days, that forever need remembering, saving
No savoring, the absence of joyous everyone, everywhere
These are the days of absence+abstinence that lasted forever
You've got to hold them in your forever heart, lest we forget
5:00 ~ 7:00 AM Tues Dec 8 2020
By the East River
NYC

https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/2549079/Van+Morrison/These+Are+the+Days
Medusa Dec 2020
I sleep less than ever now
it feels as though I guard
These helpless dreamers
With my garlic love

My son believes I can
Vanquish his monsters
So he takes his father’s place
Beside me, finally breathing

I read Eliot and shudder,
Terrible beauty, portents all.
Morning finds my girls
Happy, powerful

Twinned, they dream of war
Conquer planets, so I wonder
At such creatures they become
Fearful of the sacrifice

Such savagery is due
My hubris at ever feeling safe is staggering.
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