freckle-faced
     jug-eared
          left-handed
skinny as a fungo bat
loose-jointed
     like a string-puppet
in sports  
     not great but
          scrappy and fun
long distance runner
     played hard
          no grudges
nobody’s idea of handsome
     voice like a scratchy record
married straight out of high school
     drafted
101st Airborne
     everybody had a dumb nickname
          Denny, Little Old Lady
               nobody remembers why
     Thua Thien, South Vietnam
          hit by an RPG
               August 5, 1968
smithereens in a body bag
days later, a letter
     informs
          he’s a daddy
Denny, if you’d lived sixteen more days
     you could’ve legally bought beer
I’m sixty-seven years old
     you’re forever
          almost twenty-one
    
Memorial Day 2015
We've lost them by the thousands.  
We grieve them one by one.

Standing at the grocery store
Purchasing some tea
Eyeing magazines of kings
And queens
I approach the counter and see those
Icons of notoriety who love the people who
Worship them
To see what the masses heart belies...
False idols on pedestals
Dripping nectar, donning diamonds and
Pretty halos of foxglove-laurel.
What Is it that gives us purpose?
Your likeness caught within a picture
Hung up with tacks
A poster In some teen's boudoir?
Mirrors shattered and
Speculations
Will my person be controversial?
Completely surrounded by
Rumors and
The flashy sparks of cameras.

So Vogue says you need
Plastic surgery
And collagen.
Redeem your youth
(Slice thy skin)
After all ugliness is a sin

Am I special?
The Presley of Instagram?
A showcase in everyone's dream
The Monroe of Tweets
You James Dean fiends
You know taking
Selfies is the new disease
I pray! Matinee idols
Do you want to live forever?
Facebook me a savior
Re blog me till I'm real and
Could you tell me who I am?
I've lost myself in Wonderland

{ Memories that fade away of the beauteous Ouray...}

Frozen lake in a blistering gold sunrise;
My back tight, breath thick like fog.
A nestled community, in the middle of
The descent of the mountain;
Alike to a pearl in a clam.
Street lamps crimson glow within;
Nurturing and dim.
Aquamarine silver necklaces displayed behind windows
And pine trees, crisp, marching up the
Steep of the mountain!
Sudden breeze low and chilly,
Urging weary travelers
Into diners, slumber beds and
Sun-kissed breakfast's.

Abandoned all over again.
Looks like a ghost town in my eyes.
Its a hard caplet to swallow;
For one who doesn't recall that sorrow.
I have been chocking on,
as long as I can remember
Its the cement I crouch on;
Its this quicksand around my ankles..
To my thighs...quicker...
At my throat...
What's this lie that pushes people to the brink?
I want life to get better ,concurrent with desiring to die
But. I believe.
There is love out there...somewhere.
I hope to find where it breathes and
where it sleeps.

Some days I can't tell the right directions to take and
Some days I don't know the right decisions to make.
I was looking for a handsome face-
A spirit to awaken me and you are
Giving me chills.
Started fast, like a rush,
Straight to the heart;
You got me
Singing sweet, in Sync,
Somewhat like the lark.
Whispered to me  Sunrise lullaby's;
Uttering I held  in musical boxes in dreams and
As far off as it seems,
I see you in my sleep.
I pray for those nights
In your company I keep.
Should you forget you were the one who
Stirred my soul, I'd remind you
Again, hands clenched,
On some stroll.
Through those parks in the dark
Through some hill in the rain
What it is I'm trying to say is
You relieve silent pain
In your eyes I dance
Flickering on a wick
What fortune teller could have prophesied
The one and only's the one I'm with?
All these great secrets will be for you
And I,
To share with one another on
Sunrise lullaby's.
Steadfast our smiles and bright our future seems;
Far cry when life was
Tearing open at the seams.
We will sit by the streams cooing like
Orphans who found home
Bask in Starlight when I shake
(When you moan).
**** the demons who separated us at birth!
I now understand what a little tenderness is worth....
Beat from street swoons we doze off and fly,
Drenched in the trappings of a
Sunrise Lullaby

I'm alone but don't feel so
A million flakes caught on my sleeve,
Snow plenty under my sneakers like
Powder,
Cold, from the Stars!
A million nights getting drunk off of
sight that seems omnipresent.
(By the way)
I miss our talks as much as I
Miss our moments when not a word
Is said.
Guitar riffs and bass drops,  
simple and sweet;
I long for the twilight hours we used to meet.
Drawn to your humor, all smiles galore;
I sit back, silent, dreaming for more.
Where did you go friend for life?
you seem distant like a long sleep.
I miss you like Halloween;
Like New Years in the wake of a dream.
Ghostly visions of haunts I used to frequent,
With you.