I want to take you
with me,
but I know
you don't
belong there

when your hands
are speaking out
their silent words
of dreaming a-
bout
stages where
the burning
lights are
melting
fear
away

it's
calling you

like no one else exists
because
your hands
nothing else exists
and
so
I can't
take you with me

while the music's
taking you

I found a
cassette tape
at a
vintage
store
while you
hovered over your piano

and later realized
inside
there was
an autograph-
Roy Orbison that read
"Hugs & Kisses - Roy"

I could get it checked
get it appraised
get the papers to
prove it's
true

or I could keep it
on my
dashboard
let the tape spin out
its days and
smile to think that
it's signed,
touched by the
artist who
made it.

In that same way
I could force out
how you feel for
me
make you rise from
your piano,
focus on me
tell me that I bother you
or maybe,
even that you love me

but instead,
I'll let you
spin out your days- be a
friend to
you as you rise
to the top
(I'll always be yours
in candor, I'll be more)
& I'll smile to think that
I've been touched
by an artist
who made it.

As I've gotten older
the veins in my hands sometimes
thicken when
the air is hot
and dry
and I see the bulging
rivers, balloon tubes
full of hot blood
flexing over my
working,
carpal-
tunnel
hands

And sometimes the veins
on my legs look
bluer
than I recall-
when I'm in a hot
bath and
my knee bobs up
from the water
for a breath,
a whale's head-
blue veins like
crocheted doilies
who decorate my
Europe skin

Age is such a
funny thing- just a way
to tell time
my rosy skin
is a physical
clock
and it's the
beautiful
carriage that
transports my
mind.

There are only
26 letters
to rearrange in
ways that explain
what I'm feeling

There aren't enough
lines, dashes, dots on a
page to tell you
that I love you
and I'm
yours

I know that you don't
want me,
says your 26 letters,
and I know that you're
afraid
and I know the way I
put 26
together
can be completely
overwhelming,

but darling,
26 or 7,
3 or 100-
letters are
irrelevant to the
words I want to
say to you
and can't quite
put together

There are only 26 letters
who can't convey
what I'm feeling.