WRITING MY BROTHER

I create a world
of words

for you to be
alive in.

See, I give you
verbs

you walk...you talk

I surround you with
the necessary nouns

sustain you with
adverbs and adjectives

split the
infinitive.

I adjust the past
make it last

longer than
a future could be

change my mind
change time

tinker with the
what-could-be.

Here, I have us

a cloud of words
emanating from

our Christmas faces
making angels

the newest snow
on the tip of our tongues

on the tip of our tongues
or noses

awed by an Aurora
Borellis.

My breath
mingled with yours.

A star glows
trapped in a window pane

as if it only
shivers there.

A prisoner
of itself.

Now I change
the weather

see...it's summer
autumn whatever

I want it
to be

I reach for another
the next word

another page and
another page

until my pen
runs out of words

leaves you alone
upon a page

the blankness
terrifying.

"Brother mine
...Brian!"

"Shhh. . !" Death admonishes
". . .enough!"

as I try to keep you
alive for ever.

*


I wrote this on the eve of the New Year....4,000 miles from anywhere in the middle of the Atlantic...emotionally it was like that too.