Dark shadows swirl their way into Cabrini Boulevard,
The pigeons rise to scatter as they slowly pass along,
The pretzel seller finds his eyes are misted, caught off-guard.
A subway busker starts to play a doleful Elvis song.

East-Eighty-Third is humming with a thousand urban dreams,
Cold fantasies unfold within the petals of the night;
September ghosts are set adrift on ectoplasmic streams,
With hosts of angels following, in garlands of white light.

Sleep soundly now, New York, let bitterness be washed away,
let sleep's dark poppies dissipate all agonies of mind.
Sentinel wings will guide your mourning dreams towards the day
when sanity will reign over the ways of humankind.

29/9/11 00:01am

Come cease thy journey, come to us
Odysseus, Odysseus,
Come silently away;
We'll kiss thee all and everywhere, beneath the ocean's spray.

Oh we are warm and finely made
We yearn for thee, be not afraid
Come close to us this night,
We'll make thee tremble with desire, like beating wings in flight

I dreamed I lightly kissed thy hair
Odysseus, tis true I swear,
Then kisses to thy chest;
Which swiftly ventured lower, at thy shivering behest.

Discard thy garments, yield to us
Odysseus, Odysseus,
Come to our warm caress;
We'll make thee sing the notes coherent words cannot express.

You said you'd come to tea
so I made a cake
chocolate sweet; maraschino filled;
girdled with a satin blue ribbon;
set out the prettiest plates;
hand painted with forget-me-nots.
And from the darkest corner of a drawer
found a single candle to celebrate the day.
I'd understand if you had 'phoned,
but now the chocolate lends a bitter taste
and even the despairing posies have given up all hope
as the candle's flame flickers my ever waiting shadow.

I signed up
as a young hippie
on the side
of the losers
in the world,
the poor, the homeless,
the refugees, the starving,
the mentally ill, the physically disabled,
and so on
so that is where
I am,
on the losing side
here with us poor poets
who work long hours
for nothing,
but I figured it out
that even though
I am depressed
about my place in life,
this place is what I love
and the people
like me
are the people
that my heart goes out to,
so I'll try
to cheer up
because even if all is lost,
all is not lost.

We meet alot of people in our day,
all their name we could not say,
some friendships fade, some friendships grow,
here's to friends we love and know,

some friendships are deep and long the last,
other are just mere twinkles from the past,
some friendships fade, some friendships grow,
here's to friends we love and know,

true friends are there when in need,
they'll be that push for you to succeed,
some friendships fade, some friendships grow,
here's to friends we love and know,

if you were once a friend of mine,
in my heart you'll stay until the end of time,
some friendships fade, some friendships grow,
... here's to friends we love and know.

Prepare to feel better and worse than
                You've ever felt before
      It's not easy, at times you will seem
                                          Completely and
                                                       Utterly
                                                                                                                                                                 alone
                              But there are the other times, times
                                  a unique sense of belonging warms
                 you up from your very core because
                                                                                                     no two people share the same love, it
                                                                                                      is a creation they each pour
                                                                                                             their hearts into, and life
                                                                                                     is hard so love is too
                                                                                                                      and at times you won't
                                                                                                 know what to do but
                                                 in the end it's
                                                          alright
    


                                                                   In the end it's alright

I watch as you take a
       flying leap into the water
  sinking down three, six, twelve feet
             eyes closed, crinkles of concentration
           at last reminded to follow your bubbles to the surface
     and wave excitedly