I will not write you into poetry,
because you are worth more than these few lines deserve.
More than my metaphors could muster.
Beyond my simile.

I will not inscribe your name on my arm,
nor place you as a seal to my heart
lest my gestures be rendered meaningless.

Instead, I will trace my dreams
in circlets around your head.
I will draw upon the back of your hand
my good fortunes and pleasure.

I will seal each moment
                with the softness of your skin
and lay my anchor between the tips of your fingers.

I will mouth non-sense syllables,
and laugh out of turn.

All, in turn, just to see you smile.

Because in a world where everything seems fleeting,

this moment is forever.

Pulled as tight as the netted stars
Contentment is the only thing I hear
Wind roaring through my hair

There must be something I've forgotten
Some forgone prologue to this ebony cheer

This bowel of awkward just spills from my mouth
As if I could dry heave the perfect soliloquy,
Cite the succinct sonnet

"Friends, Romans, Countrymen"
"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"

It feels so good to feel uncomfortable again
To fumble over missed turn signals
It's been too long
Since I've calmed my  nerves
With a clove cigar,  a pen
And the cool grey of the night

the town air is still more insipid than I remember
the decaying laid to rest in ranch homes and townhouses
and more recently underground

the cold, dry and tasteless, leeches life from the bones
for the slowing heart of these abandoned streets

where families, unaware, come to their slaughter
cloven by the allure of death
hanging in the wind

the husks of the trapped wander
and masquerade the bar stool seats
of have-nots, should-have-beens, and glory days of yesteryear

and all i can do is shake the black powder from my shoes
for this stop on my travels
this shadow of a city
i've no reason to return

I've never had a brother
No blood of my blood, no seed of my mother
But if bonds forged in steel
And tempered with heat
Can sing the same song
When hammered upon

This chain link camaraderie
Would shriek:

I've never had a brother,
Or name of my name
But my heart, always open, might quake the same

A man such as you,
Who plays with fire, but has  never once burned
Who stands up a new man while everyone turns

Your character speaks the music
That is the background to your steps
You don't need lyrics
To speak with your hands

You are free will
You aren't a *******
You are who you're meant to be
Here .
Now.
You're a son of a mother
My BFL brother
Yippee-Kye-yay (Merry Christmas) *******