Dearest wildflower grinning
With powdered crooked teeth
And hair incandescent and strange
I write you this as though it were my last.
Follow me into the Holocene
And the night ghosts will not wither your grinning soul
Your blue eyes dance away
Your iris discoloured and grey
Never has indigo seemed so violent
And Auburn hair seem so opaque
And strong tongues seemed so silent.
During Berlin nights
And blanched London days
I'm forever burning in your flames.

/

Life is too short, so love the one you got
'Cause you might get run over or you might get shot
Never start no static, I just get it off my chest
Never had to battle with no bulletproof vest
Take a small example, take a tip from me
Take all of your money, give it all to charity
Love is what I got, it's within my reach.

Waxing, waning
bodies convulsing
humming and breathing
tracing, feeling

Tell me I'm beautiful
one more time
my face in your hands
let me breathe in the moonlight

Lay me beside you
tell me what's not true
lie to me
lie to me
love me like I love you

I can taste the guilt
that's hanging from your lips
I know the night-time love
in the morning won't exist
I know it's just frustration
I know that I'm not his
I was waxing in the moment
now I'm waning
unwanted

Drink up baby,
stay up all night
with the things you could do
you won't, but you might
the potential you'll be, that you'll never see
the promises you'll only make

Drink up with me now
and forget all about
the pressures of days
do what I say
and I'll make you okay,
drive them away
the image is stuck in your head

The people you've been before
that you don't want around anymore
that push, and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still

Drink up baby
look at the stars
I'll kiss you again
between the bars
where I'm seeing you there
with your hands in the air
waiting to finally be caught

Drink up one more time
and I'll make you mine
keep you apart
deep in my heart
separate from the rest
but I like you the best
keep the things you forgot

The people you've been before
that you don't want around anymore
that push, and shove and won't bend to your will
*I'll keep them still

The weight of the world
     is love.
Under the burden
     of solitude,
under the burden
     of dissatisfaction

     the weight,
the weight we carry
     is love.

Who can deny?
     In dreams
it touches
     the body,
in thought
     constructs
a miracle,
     in imagination
anguishes
     till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
     burning with purity--
for the burden of life
     is love,

but we carry the weight
     wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
     at last,
must rest in the arms
     of love.

No rest
     without love,
no sleep
     without dreams
of love--
     be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
     or machines,
the final wish
     is love
--cannot be bitter,
     cannot deny,
cannot withhold
     if denied:

the weight is too heavy

     --must give
for no return
     as thought
is given
     in solitude
in all the excellence
     of its excess.

The warm bodies
     shine together
in the darkness,
     the hand moves
to the center
     of the flesh,
the skin trembles
     in happiness
and the soul comes
     joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
     that's what
I wanted,
     I always wanted,
I always wanted,
     to return
to the body
     where I was born.

                         San Jose, 1954