With thought's silver spark
Imagination's flame lights
Gauzy moths fly in

Scratch through the coating
To metal, then acid dip
clean, ink, pounce, and print

I'll keep praying for you,
even though you don't want me to.
Just because its in your nature to quit,
doesn't mean its in mine.

You say, "we're only put here to die."
There is nothing I can say back
because deep down this thought
always occurs in my mind...

"Then we will have tonight!" we said.
  "Tomorrow--may we not be dead?"
The morrow touched our eyes, and found
  Us walking firm above the ground,
Our pulses quick, our blood alight.
  Tomorrow's gone--we'll have tonight!

pacing the floor
I'm going mad
this craving a drink is
beyond bad
up and down
and down and up
it runneth over
my despair filled cup
I don't want to think
or feel or see
this ugly mood
does that to me
all out of hope
and love seems
to hard
and writing poems
well I'm no bard
why can't I want more
of what I've got
there are plenty of others
without a lot
down and up
and up and down
writing this I feel
a clown

the women of the past keep
phoning.
there was another yesterday
arrived from out of
state.
she wanted to see
me.
I told her
"no."

I don't want to see
them,
I won't see them.
it would be
awkward
gruesome and
useless.

I know some people who can
watch the same movie
more than
once.

not me.
once I know the
plot
once I know the
ending
whether it's happy or
unhappy or
just plain
dumb,
then

for me
that movie is
finished
forever
and that's why
I refuse
to let
any of my
old movies play
over and over again
for
years.

this time has finished me.
I feel like the German troops
whipped by snow and the communists
walking bent
with newspapers stuffed into
worn boots.
my plight is just as terrible.
maybe more so.
victory was so close
victory was there.
as she stood before my mirror
younger and more beautiful than
any woman I had ever known
combing yards and yards of red hair
as I watched her.
and when she came to bed
she was more beautiful than ever
and the love was very very good.
eleven months.
now she's gone
gone as they go.

this time has finished me.
it's a long road back
and back to where?
the guy ahead of me
falls.
I step over him.
did she get him too?

The alcohol is burning
a fire through my veins
that makes every love
you ever showed me
microscopic in comparison.
Minuscule and disproportionate.