One hand slides up your thighs,
my tongue reaches down your throat,
the other hand fondles your breast,
but the real ***, the deepest ***
is the love passing between our eyes.

~mce

The brittle
silliness
of life
is only
temporary.
I endured,
but I didn't
prevail.
God was ill
on the day
I was born.
It's been
a crap shoot
ever since.
We are what
we are until
we aren't.
  ~mce

The turns of life
are imperceptible;
without knowing how,
some morning,
you find yourself
just where
you are.
  - mce

Open to me, love,
like a rose bud
unfolding,
surround me
with your being,
contain me
in your holding.
  - mce

"awake from the dream of judgement."*

Every day
I make my bed,
wrap it tight
as the soldier
I once was
was taught.

Every day
I wrap my life
tight against
the tumult
that the world
has become.

All that remains
is to wrap myself
tightly around you
and hold on
for as long
as that world
allows.

  ~mce

Aren't I a nice girl, she said? You are, he whispered, and when you stop trying so hard to be so nice, you'll be a nice woman.
  -mce

Never begin a poem with
"I miss (you, her, him) so much."
No matter How bad you hurt

you won't for long enough
to make lasting
poetry
from your pain.

Look around.

The world is more than lost lovers.
Set them free.

Find something
outside yourself
and write.

It will feel good.
I promise.

  ~mce

Nothing
Friendship
Conversation
Lust
Consummation
Love affair
Nothing
  ~mce

Soft skin,
creamy and
glistening,
wet and ready.
Now there
is the stuff
of dreams.

  ~mce

Either
you develop
your own private
religion

that allows you
to live on earth

or
you run the risk
of falling off
the world.

  ~mce

When the veil
of the temple
is rent, only
the flawed man
of pure heart
dares enter.
  - mce

Sometimes
she is all kisses
and warmth;
sometimes
she is distant,
unresponsive
and cold.
Does she want
to be wooed
or left alone?
No man can know.
It is no accident
that the muses,
like wives,
are female.
- mce

I live in that
tiny margin
between
the haves and
the homeless.
It makes
an interesting
but precarious
life. There is
no room for error.
A bad tooth,
a dead car and
things can
fall apart.
But you learn
to trust your
luck and wits.
It is like a
long range
wartime patrol
where any
surprises
will be bad.
Even so
I like it:
want little,
need little,
be happy.
Poetry and
a great fat cat.
When I make it
to my next
social insecurity
check with
more than
five dollars
remaining
in my account
I am joyous.
There are
far worse endings.
Just an old monk
from the last
century
trying to
survive a while
longer yet
in this
strange new one,
just breathing
until I'm not
anymore.

   ~mce

Some women
possess sexuality
some women
possess sensuality
some women
possess spirituality
few women
possess all

but those
are the few
worth finding

and

one of whom
is worth keeping.

A poet must be willing
to walk naked through crowds,
hoping they are blind
while knowing they are not.
   ~mce

Awake
as a flame
hoping
to burn out.

Sleet and cold.

The cat wonders
what the ****
is up.

The BBC
reports  that
the world
remains
a mess.

What is
worth knowing
at 4 AM?

You are lonely
in darkness.

It will be
a long, long day.

You are caught
in that time,
that is not time.

On a pyre
between worlds,

you burn
and burn,
but are not
consumed.

     mce

Each time
he removed
her clothes,
she imagined
herself
a different
woman,
only
more so.
  -  mce

Those
who think
in the
passive voice
have no
souls
and yet
they run
the world.
  ~ mce

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
Everybody knows the fight was fixed:
The poor stay poor; the rich get rich.
That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

Let that lovely gown
slid to your perfect ankles.
Kick it off those cowboy boots.
Step into my arms.
We will meld into
a journey only we can take.
I don't know where will we go.
But if living flesh can kiss
and become one,
it will be a holy trip
to a divinely private world.

   ~mce

******, war,
marriage, divorce,
madness, freedom:
who knew the last
would be hardest
to survive?
- mce

In the language
of love
there is no word
for impossible.

Improbable, yes.
Unlikely, yes.
Uncertain, yes.

Impossible, never.
  - mce

Love remains
inscrutable
as prayer;
not something
you understand,
but something
you do.
   _ mce

At twenty
I was a soldier
terrified to drop
into a hot LZ,
but still certain
I was immortal.

Now, at sixty-three,
I hear the sound
of chopper
and know
the time is coming.
soon.

~ mce

Sometimes
my heart
feels the kiss
of ecstasy.

Sometimes
my toes
brush the abyss
of madness.

Sometimes
I can't tell
the difference.
  - mce

Experience a
saboteur:
you already
know
they will
abandon you,
betray you,
break your heart
or die.
  - mce

Mornings are the worst,
dissolution and despair,
the terror of karma
in the pallid, dim air.
Witches of memory
shriek and taunt:
you'll never be free.
The past pukes demons
that chant and moan:
you belong to me.
Oh Muse of light,
protect me from sadness;
Oh Muse of light,
shield me from madness.
Keep my soul safe
for just one more day;
hold my heart in your hands,
keep the past at bay.
  - mce

If you make yourself
as tough as a nail,
you become a nail,
and should be very
wary of hammers.
  - mce

A strong rain
pummels this
silent valley;
my bank account
contains $29.87;
I could really use
a new pair
of shoes;
far from here,
in Afghanistan,
brave men
fight and die
for nothing at all.

These are facts
and every fact
contains a poem,
if only we
look hard enough
and have the guts
to write it down.
- mce

Two people, one life.
There is no knowing.
Deal the cards.
All you can ever do
is trust and try
and hope you
come up all aces.
   'mce

I grew up here.
I am sitting
on my porch
listening to
the sound
of nothing.
Then, there were
four or five cars
on the street.
Now it is
parked solid.
Prosperity.
Many vehicles,
good jobs,
nice houses,
peace and quiet
and safety.
But out there
half the world
is burning
and its tortured
populations
flee toward
just this kind
of life.
How long
before this
silence is just
a memory
swamped by
the rising tide
of human misery
desperately seeking
this kind of home.

  ~mce

An old lover
called me Messy
instead of Mike.
She was right
(always).
My gift orders words,
not things.
I exist
in a cluttered world,
but reside
in the order
of imagination.
I am a ruby
gleaming
in a pile
of dog ****.
Watch me shine!
- mce

Love is a fascinating subject,
but by no means the only one.
   ~mce

a day late and
a dollar short

cliché for sure

but the true
story
of a life

   ~mce

Eat more often.
Be grateful for breath.
Notice smiles.
Smile back.
Surrender to serenity.
Get a cat.
Split more wood.
Build bigger fires.
Stay warm.
Drown in desire.
Embrace Creation,
flawed but gorgeous.
Walk in beauty.
Taste the breeze.
Touch someone's heart.
Feel the music.
Find the blaze of light
in every word.
Remember the best.
Learn from the worst.
Repeat...
  - mce

The poet
is just a
sorcerer
bored
with magic
trying new
incantations
with little
hope.
  ~mce

Women
blow through
my life
like neurotic
hurricanes.
In their
aftermath,
I repair
what I can,
knowing
that the next
tropical depression
gathers
just beyond
the horizon.
- mce

Thank you, Willie*

Where are the loves of yesteryear?
Safely stowed in my careful heart,
where though long ago lost,
they still radiate warmth and beauty
and whisper to me what is possible
and why desire must never end.
  ~mce

Immaculate,
white,
brightly lit,
sterile
and locked.
Ruled
by certainty
and good
intention,
not a solitary
doubt disturbs
its perfection.
As close to Hell
as you can get
on earth.
Worse even
than war.
No one
consigned
to such a place,
even by
mistaken love,
can help being
changed forever.
And no one
every truly
leaves.
  - mce

Meditate on something.
Meditate on nothing.
It doesn't much matter.
Nothing is going
               to happen
and that is exactly
               the point.

   ~mce

Low clouds scud;
rain pounds down;
trees tear the mist:
chilly, drear and lonely.

The only warmth
in my heart,
from your heart,
jumps across the miles
and brings me smiles.

**** old age:
who cares?

For decades
the world
has crushed
your shoulders,
but is no longer
a burden.

Revolutions,
pestilence,
family squabbles
prove nothing
but that life
goes on and
not everybody
has freed himself
yet.

No need
to fear death:
it won't help.

Life is inevitable;
there are no escapes.

Breathe while you can.
  ~ mce

Last night
I dreamed of war.
The choppers buzzed
like mad whirring insects,
the ****** exploded
like hell's own fire,
the wounded screamed
like tortured babies,
the dying begged me
to tell them why
and I couldn't
because there is
no why in war,
no moral, no reason.
Waking, I dream
of dreams of peace
that will never arrive.
"Only the dead
know the end of war."
- mce

If luck falters
and I am taken tonight,
at least I will go knowing
I was never
another man's meal.

   -  mce

I am the one
you light up for.

My staff stands
and strikes you
deep and hard
as a serpent.

I am the fire
that burns
away
your being.

You are the bush
that is never
consumed.

   ~mce

I vaguely recall whole nights
of deep, refreshing slumber,
waking renewed and ready.
Now, every morning,
I stumble into consciousness
from an exhausting welter
of dreams and demons
wondering who
you must ****
to get a single,
decent night of sleep?
- mce

You make me want
to forget sixty-three
years of lessons
about women so I
can learn what
I only need to know
from only you
only to please you.

~mce

In the World's eyes,
the only things
I have ever succeeded at
are war and failure.
Fortunately, I never look
through those eyes.

  ~mce

Sometimes I get lonely
for the old days
when I drank a lot
and didn't think too much.

  ~mce

it's a long time
since last night.

  ~mce