I had written you a love poem
maybe two or twelve
before I ever met you
but it's hard to tell

I wrote you ten or seventeen
while we were in our throes
I wrote about a handful more
before I met my close

Then wedding bells
Then honeymoons
I wrote a few for her

I passed them off
originals
her own down to the word

I might have been successful
she never cast a doubt
but I never believed
I ever left you out

The ivory poacher stalks his prey
each day he walks the silent plains
a gun slung high upon his arm
no warmth within his gaze

Elephants nor rhinos sought
but two or one extensions of
an ivory tower painted red a
bullseye meaning meant for dead

The ivory poacher sights his barrel
warily delivers narrow
slivers of a weathered corpse
thundering down to the earth

an ivory tower in his hand
or two if it's an elephant
a clean pristine white he holds high
and on his soul a red bullseye

I love you
he said

how much?
she said

the world
he said

there's more than
that

the stars and moon
the universe
the hidden leaves
he said

she blushed

I love you too
she said

I know

the depths of the
Antarctic snow

she said
he said

I love you too

she said
he said
she's dead

she bled
the light of moons
eclipsed

I love you too
he said
she said
is it too soon?

away she slipped

the way a tide
decides a ship

Autumn again
red leaves spring
red leaves fall
red leaves for winter

somewhere
Summer
shimmers verdant

falling for Autumn
for not one
stays green

brays green
fades red
the hue
off Her shoulder
betrays not an Angel
but Devil sat over

He whispers and She
She laughs
red with glee
falling for Autumn
recalling Her being

I've never heard a piano
say a single
word

Though it always seems
to tell the
truth

I have a girl now
she is
beautiful, really
she's smart and she
laughs
and she calls all my bluffs

I have her now
she has me too
so it's fair
if you ask her or me

I have a girl now
and I smile because well
I'm  happy
she says
she's happy too

I have my girl
and I've lost my girl
though I have her now
so I smile

At night, only sometimes,
and maybe I'm drunk
I look for her
for my girl

but I'm drunk
so I smile
and smile
and I smile
and grin ear to ear
and smile
(so I think)
as I smile
and grit all my teeth
and grin all the while

between my thoughts
she streaks like eyes
down lines of farmland
razed for tithes

a naked field
to the nines
dressed up in sunsets
through ribbed spines