The spoken word
          is a  w i l d  thing,


It                               around,
              leaps
                              

                    ping-pongs from
           tongue           to            cheek


                     knocks down
                                                        teeth

 ­                        on    its    way    

                         out,

            shows up a little
            mangled, rough-
            housed.

I prefer it tame,
locked safely
behind thick
pen-stroke bars
in a prison of
crisp, cream
leaves or
LED screens.

Then, with a
        whip
                 crack it’ll
jump through
hoops, balance
             on
             a
             leg, ride
elephant poems
to a few cheers.

I swear it
ain’t mistreatment;
you see,

words

keep
   their
      meaning
      when
    written
   up
 tight.

I wouldn’t call it ****** frustration
I’d call it intimacy frustration
I just want to
sit in comfortable silence with you
read a book together
gently touch lips for just a second
or hold your hand
I want to write a poem together
and discuss philosophy all night
I want to devour your thoughts
and return the favor by sharing mine
those late night conversations
that’s what I want
but can’t have

I danced in the living room,
There wasn't any music, just light,
And this sweet pervasive feeling,
That everything would be alright,

I had almost forgot what it felt like,
For everything to just be okay,
For the sun to rise and not see me cry,
And set the exact same way,

I danced in the living room,
And no was around to see,
The way I spun and twirled and danced,
Was completely and unabashedly me,

I almost forgot who that girl was,
Who calls my body home,
She's spent all this time aching to get out,
And I wish that I had known,

I danced in the living room,
Until I lost all that light,
But I held onto that feeling,
That everything would be alright.

my wish for yet another year
    apart from all the usual
    of good health luck success and joy
is that the news become more elevating
inform us less about what's going wrong
foreground the positive
not only the sensational alarmist frightening

in short
provide a better balanced view of our world
to make it clear from what is seen and heard
that even though
room for improvement on the globe is plenty
we can do it

A HAPPY NEWS YEAR 2020