I was wild
& you preferred mild
But when I caught you stare
I suddenly didn’t care

So I knew when
You kissed me then
I couldn’t ever explain
Why I kissed you again

I could never understand
Why I grabbed your hand
& led you unplanned
Into a foreign land

You and me
Were never meant to be
You live inside the box
& I live to break the locks

When this life is over
& time has taken its toll
I again will be your lover
When death makes us whole

In the air, in the air
When I fall to the sky
It’s only then that I’d dare
To love you then & there

I hate you
No, no
I love you
Slower, slower

I hate fast
Slow down the pace
This cannot last
This fall from grace

Augment your fingers
Across splintered hips
Your taste lingers
On sugary lips

Submerge
Into red, red wine
Surge
You’re the cork

Slower, slower
I want this to last
Slow,    s l o w
This can’t ever last

You swallowed
And I swear I went down
Your throat

You gulped
And I swear you guzzled
Me up

You drank
And I swear every drop
Of me

You quit
And you swore to God,
To me

You relapsed
And I swear I’m trapped in
Your bottle

I was your chamomile tea
You were more an earl grey
I preferred a glassy sea
But you loved afternoon decay

I was your peppermint
You were my flickering glint
Of a late night summer glimmer
Before the sun began to simmer

I was your stirred Pacific
You were my churning Atlantic
& Although it seemed romantic
We were as sunk as the Titanic

I realized the other day
That poetry has become
How I color in the gray
How I scrape up the ****
And salvage it

At times I think it’s nonsense
Stanzas of here and there
Of love and its expense
A sad whispered prayer
To someone, to no one

But looking back
To how I wrote then
And how I crack
Like leaky pottery when
I write now

I understand
Who I was then
& How unplanned
time and time again
I find myself alone

They’re standing on the edge
Where sea gives way to land
They’re dancing, toeing the ledge
Of the dark and the white sand

They might be touching
No, no they are holding
Even more so  c l u t c h i n g
Two shady figures molding

An old man alone in his car
Stares out at an empty night
Imagines two shadows off not too far
Dancing in the fading moonlight