You tell me to grow a pear
Just so I can put the fruit between my lips and eat it.

So close, so far; so close, so far.
Only four years apart.
And here is a man who has created something that others enjoy,
but he can call his own.
Something easy, something accessible, something simple,
and he's served so many who can so easily take it for granted.
Has he money or merit or formal praise or accolade,
I know not, but fame and fame and fame,
for creating a way, a niche, a salon for the literary minded
to congregate and ventilate,
meditate and salivate,    
indeed* create [and] regurgitate.
Thanks to thee our blessed Eliot York.
Lead on; lead on.

a learning experience
- the detailed
timing and precision

- a certain etiquette
in the rise and fall
of hands and feet

i learned the walk
- mirrored on the toe
of a spit-shined boot

shooting imaginary doves
in white gloves -

the proper fold
of the cloth
- tight and taught
with stars above

the tri-fold - not
a trifling thing we're told

the color of a mother's tears
and grip of a father's grief -
the why in the cry of a child

- sad song of the bugler
on a windswept hill
standing in the detail.

r ~ 10/29/14

At midnight,
when humble prayers are offered
to a strange god,
I worship only
stranger skin.

Call me stupid
Call me lame
I never planned
On earning fame

Call me ugly
Call me gross
The weight I loose
For you the most

Call me ****
Call me addict
Push me face down again
While you're at it

a body.
a boy.
a bottle
a bed.
a loss.

a boy.
a bottle.
the bed.
my body

a loss.