You remember who you are
in that moment of invisibility
repeat your name
where you are, why you are

You are who you remember
You decide
what you
become

You who remember, are you*
lost in what was?
braced for what may be?
in denial?

You are what you eat
I *****
She looks familiar

as the poems go into the thousands you
realize that you've created very
little.
it comes down to the rain, the sunlight,
the traffic, the nights and the days of the
years, the faces.
leaving this will be easier than living
it, typing one more line now as
a man plays a piano through the radio,
the best writers have said very
little
and the worst,
far too much.
from ONTHEBUS - 1992

Fury found in eyes that glare,
Fuming sheets that smoulder;
Clenched, my fist once did hold
A love, but now a soldier.

     Meet me in the morning,
     Just as the sun will rise,
     And there we'll mark our paces,
     And pledge our love won't die.

Search in autumn shorelines,
I'm standing in the sand;
Found guarding my own pill-box,
With destruction in my hands.

     Meet me in the time of love,
     Will you be my second?
     Relieve my eyes that guard a fancy,
     Release a heart so fecund.

Leave me shrouded in the evening mist,
Help the shooting stop.

Now leaves are yellowed with vericose veins,
And loosen with arthritic hands;
Our one-time love lifts with the night,
I've lost you once again.

She hides her smile
behind black lipstick.
Her voice is low
and in between.
She smells of loneliness
and cigarettes.
She sings for me
when she is high.

She gets me higher
than I can go.
She takes me low
and in between.
Her heart's on fire
when she sings.
Her voice is smokey,
full of pain.

She sings of loneliness
and broken dreams.
Her dance is low
and in between.
She gets me high
and lets me down.
She kisses me
with black lipstick.

r ~ 4/29/14