7 oclock
I pull up to the house where the party is at
Which happens to be your house
And I can see that the place is packed
But I already know that no matter how many people are in those rooms
I will be alone

9 oclock
2 hours and only four shots in
And I am not yet drunk enough to be having a good time

11 oclock
I saw you looking at me from across the room
And maybe it was just the alcohol
But I could've swore I saw longing in your eyes

1 oclock
I left without saying goodbye
Because I knew if I opened my mouth around you my lips would carry themselves to yours

2 oclock**
I couldn't stop thinking of you on my ride home
And I hated myself for avoiding you
The crash of metal against metal that filled my ears was surprisingly enough to make my thoughts stop

Let me help you
get that dress
over your head.

Wait a minute:

Let me take you
while that dress
is over your head.

I'd like to be
more helpful,
but lust strikes
powerfully,
hard and deep.

Please pardon
my greed,
but I can see
what I need

and right now,
I need you.
~mce

You choose any noun
you would like to be;
I'll become your adjective,
gratefully.

Just found my
honest to god
vintage 1963
James Dean Ray Bans
in the garden where
I must have
dropped them
last summer.

Even as an old man
they make me feel
like Steve McQueen.

Now I can pretend
to be cool and smooth
again; but I doubt
my Lady will be fooled.
   ~mce

1
Sleep is not kind to age.
Evening and morning
mean little to me.
Awake when awake;
asleep when asleep.
As Janis Joplin said,
it's all the same
******* day, man

     2
Sleep is for the young;
now I grab a few hours
here and there when I can.
I have come to know that time
really is of the essence.
        
     3
Older now,
inevitably less
everyday.
Sweet Muse,
I do not fear death,
but dread the thought
we may never meet
and that if we do
I will not
be enough for you.

      4
You are the wise woman,
the alchemist of my soul.
No longer a poet
I have become your poem.
Incant your spell
and I come to life.
    
       5
Old men live on
medicine and memory
telling each other
the same stories
over and over,
enjoying them
each time
while the young
yawn.

      6
Sons grow tall and strong,
take up their lives
and leave yours behind.
This is an old story.
It will be told many times.

      7
The girl I loved
at 17 is 68 now
and lives in Greenwich
contentedly retired.
I have seen her picture.
She is still beautiful.
Why wouldn't she be?

      8
Deep in our aged hearts,
bucking all the odds,
we know that nothing
is ever really lost.

     9
There is a
whole world
out there;
in here, too.

     10
When you find her,
love her;
the universe will
show you the way.

~ mce

Leaving me is how you stayed
tragedy and memory work the same
they spin the lead back into gold
your lips they were my alchemist's stone

But you're still standing in my head
more perfect than the day you left
I blurred the scars and darker days
it all looks perfect from far away

Chorus: I fell in love with a memory
With something that you'll never be
It's funny what the mind can make
and leaving me has made you stay.

All is fair in love and war
Though time is still their only cure
Forgotten tales of a thousand lives
All men live and all men die

You left your heart and ghost behind
and your words burn in my mind
you're probably gone a world away
but leaving me is how you stayed.

Chorus: I fell in love with a memory
With something that you'll never be
It's funny what the mind can make
and leaving me has made you stay.