Would you know me, my Love
And wave your hands at me
Or curve your lips blissfully
If my name chooses to escape
Your memory?

Would you embrace, my Love
A body that has turned to dust
— An image of the past—
Nay, would you return my love
For as long as I last?

For it would mean everything
To have someone like you
Here and everywhere, a companion
Knowing that the sky is pale
So she fills it with hue.

Am I a spider without web?
In its silky warmth it abides
Am I a wolf without fangs?
From which a hapless prey hides
Am I a lion without its mane?
Upon which the kingdom rests
Am I a snake without its hiss?
From its music springs death
Am I a foolish mouse?
Without its genius, it becomes fad
To the feline but with stealth
The slower ones are just fat
Alas, am I a human without a purpose?
Slowly thus his soul corrodes.

I long to die
And have eternal respite
From these tormenting woes.
Yet I'm afraid that
Upon closing the eyes,
Will ensue regrets.

But if I live,
and force myself to breathe
     this air of lead,
I shall spend days and nights
Lying in bed.
For there is no soul
As tired as mine—prematurely worn
By the hands of Time.

Monday is a lie
Like your parents fondly told
To make you behave
No less than the morning news
As real as the Boogeyman.

Rainy days
Cold musky pillows and rumpled linens
Steam from a brewing coffee, someone’s  
               making breakfast in the kitchen
Afternoons in the month of May
Sweat of a bemused lover
Endless summer rains.

Your hair is lava that springs from the earth
Your smile is the moon that glows ‘pon the hearth
And every vapor of your body reminds me of the sea
Teeming with life, electrifying!

O, how you walk with dalliance, perfect like a sunflower
                                                          that blooms every May
While your lips are cherries—of course ‘twould be sweet!
But if there’s one thing I most admire
Like music from a lire
It is your eyes
Which makes me want to cry.

O, times of walking down that one-way street!
Always to find your footsteps among the clatter
On dreamy sidewalks.
And how many times have I heard
Even your slightest whispers
Above hungry engines and thunders
Of some passing train? I wonder.
And when it rained, the earth suffused with your scent  
I found you plastered on the gray walls,
Etched on the thirsty asphalt roads
Mixed in the dust and smoke.

Like a river – that one-way street
(I once said to you, remember?)
And we are but wrecks on its wake.
I can’t help but feel that I am still
That piece of fallen branch
Hopelessly being carried by the torrent
Always getting back—
To you.

Even as I’ve reached now the calmer seas
And lie under a silver blanket of silence,
The City’s music still hums in my ears:
There is harmony in the noise, my dear
Listen: a delicious, ghostly harmony
Seething with your own caramel voice.

You give life to that City.
Alas, I am ever lost
In its enchanted alleys.