talk to me,
There's no substance here

look at me
with all there is to fear

follow me,
I know I've no sense

cling to me,
in innocence

sing to me,
I need your music

kiss my soul,
if you must abuse it

hold my head,
when it's weighed down

with horrors and
truths new and profound

I need to feel you
more closely, dear

the dark figures are
circling ever near

you are the light
that much is clear

the light that softens
the toughness
of my petty fears

I need you here,
I need you near

I need you to hear
I need you here

When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,
She looked so limp and bedraggled,
So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,
Or a wizened aster in late September,
I brought her back in again
For a new routine--
Vitamins, water, and whatever
Sustenance seemed sensible
At the time: she'd lived
So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer,
Her shriveled petals falling
On the faded carpet, the stale
Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.
(Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)

The things she endured!--
The dumb dames shrieking half the night
Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,
Me breathing ***** at her,
She leaning out of her *** toward the window.

Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me--
And that was scary--
So when that snuffling ****** of a maid
Threw her, *** and all, into the trash-can,
I said nothing.

But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week,
I was that lonely.

waiting to be saved
from a loveless existence
rooted in foreign anger
with sickened persistence

aiming with the mindset
To fall short from the mark

blind fingers reaching
out in the wild dark

I reach for a a willing hand
tensed up in assistance

no man willing takes the
form of the damsel
but I am no man bred
of this world

I won't feel the will
from within, I'm doomed
to be doomed confined
in cold rooms

I wait for who's to be
the breathe of worth
that sweeps through