I ate a bun
It tasted great,
A sip of tea,
I can’t be late.

Work is waiting,
Things must be done,
Reports, decisions,
I’m on the run.

No time for love,
No tears, no pain,
Just work to work,
And not complain.

Who stole the dark,
Where did night go,
Who turned all black to blue and glow,
L E D to O C D,
No fade to pitch, I constant-see.

How can we dream, incessant light,
My raw honed urge to think at night,
Now everyone owns text and screen,
There is no time when we’re not seen.

Hand back my true nocturnal pause,
Not just for sleep, this poet’s cause,
I need my hours when I am blind,
Turn off those things, here’s what you’ll find.

Music lives to play at night
Notes like fireflies, dance in flight,
Smell the air when all is black
You’ll taste the world, a tactile snack.

Kiss her when she can't see you,
Surprise her with a touch or two,
Whisper in her ear and shiver,
In darkness she will arch and quiver.

One week each year is all I ask
All light switched off, a worldwide task,
I beg this ghost returned to all,
Dreams ignite when darkness falls.

I breathe to live, I hold my breath,
I seek, I search, I’m blind at best,
My fingers sand skin smooth and soft,
I kiss, caress, kind words crisscrossed .

I live to love, I love just you,
Well I love others, so it isn’t true,
But you are passion, my true desire,
Naked, flushed you push me higher.

If I could sleep and wake and dream,
I’d beg you be my secret scheme,
Let’s run until we cannot breathe,
Let’s run so neither never leave.

Archie and Gigs,
Slow dancing, toes touching,
Maybe what,
The tenth Christmas song in a row,
Peanut shells crunch under their soft shoes,
The bar clock slips past midnight,
Her arms in a loose noose around his neck,
His hands on that perfect powder puff *** of hers,
Sentimental embezzlers,
God he loved the feel of her cheeks in his hands,
Made him feel like he’d achieved something
With this pathetic life of his,
Didn’t matter how bruised he was,
When she walked into the room,
He smiled,
Every **** time
And well *******
If that weren’t the signature of love,
Then ,as Archie often said,
He would eat pigeon crumbs and throw his shoes in the East river
And although nobody could quite figure what he meant by that,
Gigs knew he’d sooner stop breathing, than miss one dance with her,
He’d rather live in the trunk of a car full of spiders and bats,
(Which he did one early weekend to prove his love to her,
Archie said love had to be demonstrated or it was just phony *******,
Anybody can say stuff Archie said but a real man always takes action)
,
And harsh truth, she was ****** hooked
On the old ******,
Her poet , her man, her rare and rough ,
It just felt too **** good to see that smile,
That twinkle, the sly eye and his hands fit her *** perfectly
So could there be any better proof
That they were they.

One more Archie asked
And Gigs did her sigh with the horse flutter at the end
And Archie, smiling like a buzz saw
Lifted her off her feet and knew he was alive

Should we enjoy life while others suffer.
Right now all us know there are horrors beyond words
Occurring in this second.

A girl child is being ****** to her death,
Buried up to her neck in dirt, while grown men
Throw heavy rocks at her head,
And gossip amongst themselves,
Until they fracture her skull several times and she dies slowly.
Oh they put a hood over her head,
So none will have to look her in the eye.

A boy just blew himself and others to pieces.
A child,
He walked six blocks
Shivering from the chill of final minutes,
The awkward explosives rasping the skin on his hips raw,
Praying to a degenerate god,
Until his uncle presses a button.

A man is being tortured to death
By an adult in a uniform,
A uniform worn with pride by millions,
A uniform stained by hypocrisy and confusion,
And the mud of rights and wrongs.

A mother is watching her child starve to death.
Can you place yourself there,
A single room,
No heat or light, no way to protect your child,
No one to help you, death a constant whisper,
The suicidal despair of watching your child die,
A child who pleads into insanity, for you to help.

Perhaps it is happening only two blocks
From where you sit,
Or two million blocks
From where you sleep and fornicate and wish.
But we know.
We know.
It is happening and
I know
That
You know.

You, the one reading this poem right now,
And I
We know this truth.
So now what?

If I cannot run, I will not fall,
If I cannot kneel, I will not crawl.
If I cannot sleep, I will not dream,
If I cannot wake, I will not scheme.
If I cannot lie, I will not speak,
If I cannot die, I will not weep.

What memories old photos hold,
Inside the creases, beneath the folds,
Friends whose names I cannot mine,
Stirred feelings, mix and intertwine.

Faces, smiles, our eyes star bright
First loves, best friends, love in hindsight,
Cocky, loud, such laughing fools,
Long hair, bold flowers and way too cool.

Three wishes offered I’d take one,
To live again, let life rerun
To be that boy in time again,
To passion all and youth regained.