My name is Joseph and I fought
in a madman's curse called war.
Our leaders had a hissy fit and
screamed like brats for honor.
They declared war and fed us
to the machine from which we
can never return intact.
Something is always missing.

I'll write a song
with music and rhyme
and poetry dripping
like dew from a vine.
I'll steal an orchestra
and God's own choir
and serenade you
to my bed of fire.

Youth's grand promises
  begin to yellow and fade.
  My hair thins and belly
  grows. I'm finally afraid.
  I buy condoms and ******
  a Corvette and a toupee.
  I go to a discotheque meet
  a Queen. I've nothing to say.

Sometimes I forget
   to remember you
   day to day as we
   live our small life
   together and alone.
   I remember you now.

I'm a Van Gogh painting
   cheap wine and cigarettes
   pensive and midlife thicker
   still hunger for lovers to
   show me youth's true north
   so I can find my way back.

nothing's lost
   nothing's pure
   nothing's forever
   nothing's sure.

   pretend we found us
   pretend we still ****
   pretend 50 years
   pretend good luck.

I pull the shades down
to hide my onion skin
so we can **** at noon
and youth won't see it.
You are porcelain white.
I froze at Pompeii in ash.