So today made a pact with tomorrow
to run away.
Gently closing the door as I lay.
Leaving me here alone with yesterday.

Many years
ago, I went to
this little
Irish bar.
On Sunday nights,
there was a jazz band.
They played
Monk
Mingus
Coltrane
Miles
and the Duke.

I drank gallons of
****** marys on
those hot
summer nights.
Dill pickle spears, and
green olives came up
later on those
hungover, dreamless
mornings.

I was young.
I wasted the days,
lying in the sun,
bayonetted by youth.
Copper colored skin,
tin soul.
I would go thousands
of miles, chasing
that train, before I
would be forgiven.

I sit in the day room of
cell block one in the county jail at
4: 30 am.  It's quiet, almost serene.
All the other inmates are asleep.
I wait for breakfast: two hard-boiled eggs,
a doughnut, juice, and milk.  
Once a week we can order books.
They will deliver them today.
I'll get Bukowski, Steinbeck, and Cervantes.
The remaining six days will
fly by.
When I'm released, I'll go under
the bridge—steal wine and
stay drunk.
I'll eat every three or four days.
It's January with record-setting
frigid temperatures.
Survival will be a challenge.
There will be an ex-girlfriend to
contend with.
I'll try to get what little
clothes that I left at her place,
that is if she didn't throw them away;
she's somewhat of a **** like that.
My two best friends who stayed under
the bridge with me, died a day
apart two months ago,
so, nothing but
ghosts and memories there now.
I'm going to miss jail.

Do you like to hear the birds singing
or the sound of ocean waves
Do you like watching the sunrise in the morning
or seeing it set in the eve

Have you ever been to the mountains
or seen the view from the peak
Have you ever swam in the ocean
or soaked up the sun on beach

Do you remember that feeling of a new love
or remember being as happy as you can be
Do you remember the music that was playing
or feeling that the moment was a dream

Poetry is born not in time
Oasic words born rather out of time
Elapsed time uncounted in the stream of time
Treasured verses beyond time
Revamping soul connections bequest of time
Yarns spun in spools of time