I have pools of sadness within me,
of unfathomable depths.
I do not know how it is that
my sadness cannot be measured—
only doled out in spoonfuls:
a bitter medicine
taken daily.

Lord,
Your eyes hold
The age of the universe.

And so we begin.
Head bowed,
Pen poised,
Whetting words against the edge of a dictionary.

when Whitman wrote, "I sing the body electric"

I know what he
meant
I know what he
wanted:

to be completely alive every moment
in spite of the inevitable.

we can't cheat death but we can make it
work so hard
that when it does take
us

it will have known a victory just as
perfect as
ours.

Nunc est bibendum,
nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus*

        Now is the time to
                       drink,
Now the time to
            dance
                     footloose
                            upon
                               the earth.

       Tread  lightly
                      upon
              the clay of
      my  heart.

                Do you
           not know
                  the way
                       my pulse
                              drums in
                drunken            syncopation
               ­             as you
                                   waltz your way
                                            towards me?


The courage of your beauty overwhelms.