LE JEU AVEC LE FEU

I caught
the mirror

watching me

it stuck out its tongue
I stuck out my tongue back

both the mirror and I
smiled

that "Gotcha!" moment.

It's tinkling laugh
like broken glass

as I fell to the ground
in pieces

all my shattered selves
staring up at me

the mirror
for once

silent.

ZAK'S PRAYER

Little Zak
(just a little scrap of a chap)    
with a deep Barry White voice

enquires(as he enquires
about everything) :

“Why is your hair white? ”

He listens patiently to the explanation
how after a head injury

“I went white overnight! ”

Being a good Christian child
he tells me

he will pray for me
for the “black to be back! ”

I’m very tempted
to dye it for the next day

just to prove his prayer
right.

When his fervent prayer
doesn’t turn the situation around

...he frets:

I tell him
God & me

are both happy
with it…like this.

“Really? ”
He asks.

“Really! ”
I affirm.

“Have it your own way then
but man...

it makes you look
old & grim!"

I grin
tell him that I am what I am

but that I can live with it:
"Ok..!" he sighs "...have it your own way!"

WORLDS AT ONCE

I watch you
sleeping in the mirror

& touch
your image

& you echo it.

Only your laughter
inhabiting both

worlds at once

on the other side of nowhere

...a dream away.

The mirror laughs
in its sleep.

I
Write
To Remember...
Or
To Forget...
Or
Both.

All I wanted to do
Was go to the Moon
It's where they all said, it was at
"Why, it was amazing up there!"
It was the place to go
The place to be
You just had to go there
It just had to be seen.

So! So I went to the Moon
And they all smiled at me
And nodded their heads
"Isn't it beautiful ?", they all said
Yes, I replied, it's... it's beautiful
It's just like... like a great big
A great big...... Quarry!!!
Lots of rocks and shale and dust and
   stuff...

About as empty as my soul
And empty as yours as well I fear.

                          II

(Maybe I could set up a hamburger
   stall there
Sell Moonburgers and nice crispy
   Saturn onion rings
And Milky Way milkshakes
At least then...at least then they'd be filled with something).