have I ever imagined
I would enter a bank
masked
asking for money

My brittle heart
longs to be held
by your small hand

all poetry is personal
some more than others

to just spread out your private feelings
     in your verse
may not be everyone's delight

but if you choose words
so that the many find their voices
    in your own
you may be lucky
to achieve all poets' dreams

your personal voice
becomes the public

and she got married
gave birth
i’ve become kind of a relic

like sun or time

because we’ve known each other for four billion years

Twenty four degrees today?
maybe
could be,
should be,
I'll wait and see
but it looks unlikely,

not that I know what unlikely
looks like,

it's
likely unlikely looks like me.

still,
I'll wait and see.

Mostly
I agree with
Paul Valéry,
I am just not sure
if his war is the war
we are still fighting.

if you're mentioned in dispatches
the catch is
you're sometimes dead,