This is probably my favorite one
CONNECTION
I met her online
and I was taken
by who she was,
a lovely faceless someone,
Her words touching
deep in my
Heart
and Soul
And she lived
in a magical place,
stepping out
on the phone lines
sometimes,
staying mostly
within her world of
cats and connifers,
of starlit skies and
lazy dog
afternoons
I would never
visit the Woman
online,
her paradise,
and she knew
she would never
come to mine
yet, in a brief
moment
we found a thing,
a clearer beauty,
a sharing,
along a common line
And, as we parted
we knew
our Hearts would
cross again,
another handle,
another service,
a future time,
and there
would come a spark,
a magical rainbow
curved across
somewhere back there,
a smidge of a thought,
something gained,
maybe lost,
now
quietly found
again
And the Woman
and I would pretend
we hadn't met
before, and
keep our chat
brief
and courteous
and witty
for fear we could
actually realize
or that we might
sacrifice
that next safe
extension
reserved
exclusively
for us.
*********
THE KEYRING
A keyring came
in the mail today
not an ordinary one
seen to hold the
common things that
unlock
other common
things
On its chain
hangs a Valentine
topped with reflecting
rainbows,
mirrors of
the sender's heart
. . .and from its silver
locking ring
there dangles a
Magical Key
no other eyes but mine
can see
Above the range of
common things
I'm blest by my
invisible Key,
it moves the tumblers
of a far-off heart
and sets them all in
line,
it frees
the hostaged qualities
there
locked long in
bygone time
And every day
the myriad faces
inside
my Valentine,
they call to me
to shoot my Sagittarian
arrow,
come, follow its
magic flight,
heart across the
horizon
to a place
of Mystery and
Light.
*********
WOMAN AT DENNY'S
(a better Lover)
It was her wide
easy smile
that caught my eye
She was a poem having breakfast
with joy and laughter
and hope
her eyes cradled the passion
of her soul
And, though she didn't smile for me
still, I fell in Love
all over again
and, for a moment,
I envied the proteges
feeling the cool-fire
of her aura
And I made myself a promise
then
I will make
my Lover
smile that way
for me
again
*********
ANCIENT TREMORS
We should have died then
mother and me
when the ground shook
and tilted and cracked
nearly spilling us and all
our woven histories
into some eternal nowhere
heaven only knows where
I remember mother's kitchen
spotless and all the
childhood aromas
tugging at my nose
skillet-fried chicken
steaming red onions
mother's kitchen-
where great and heavy things
got decided and created
and I remember the first
deep tremors, how they
grew by milliseconds
grew until mother and me
fell like frozen trees
to heaving lineoleum
and were forced by large
moving objects to scamper
away to the living room
to safety between the
sofa and the great oak
coffee table
I remember putting my arm
around mother's short
round body and the other
over her small, gray head
just like she held me when
I was six and the lead-pipe
bully down the block decided
to teach me a lesson
*********
AFFIRMING THE JOURNEY
When I am dying
I shall try not to
set a date
and a time
for my last breath
I shall not want
to suffer
the waiting agonies
before
death's gate
and throw my loved ones
into those
limbos
I shall visit the
city of Light
I built
while here on Earth
a place of
wellness and no pain
no sadness
and tears
I will see the children
playing in the fields
with the greatest
beasts
and the smallest
creatures
and
there will be no
boundaries
there
I will see the forests
thriving
and the oceans diamond
clear
the heavens
are the bluest
and
I'll see my friends
who have journeyed
there
I will take that
last step
gladly
not waiting for
events
or arrivals or
departures
sensing in my heart
it is a time for
joy
a time for
celebration.
*********
THE BACK FENCE
The still-frame he
sees
is as tranquil as yesterday's
now long forgotten,
no memories
that weep or bring joy,
just this moment
sharpened by
earth-memory
Something stirs
in a small
corner of his
sensory silence and
the Cat tenses to
do battle
with fiery
autumn leaves,
marauding intruders
pouncing down
on him
intent on taking
his perfect
lookout,
his sacred
grounds.
*********
HELPERS
The men
ride their conversation
through city streets
going someplace
and
the woman
rides her tears
through memories
going someplace
else
healing.
*********
DARK PRINCE
How is it we can
know each other
so well
and not be friends
at all
Pain?
As if I did you
some great wrong
some way
Pain
you are paying
me back
minute by long
agonizing second
And, no!
you are no friend
of mine
Pain
when I cannot even
think straight
and all my groundings
are stolen by
moments
(Universal Dark Prince,
you are not kind.
When you hurt the body
the mind can hurt others
and when you hurt the mind
the body can hurt others.)
It is all I can do
to record your dirty
tricks here
Pain
as you rob me of
focus
and eat away at
the core of
each thought
(and my stomach lining,
too, as I fight you)
Pain,
I know we are of
each other
and I try to
accept and be one
with you
but, listen up
old Painman
when you are the
neediest
there is only
malice
in my heart for
you
It is then
Pain
that you are truly
a royal
pain in the. . .
. . .nether cheeks.
***
. . .he's gone now, but I wanted to expose him in the act.
*********
SKINS
Why do you want to wear my jeans?
to get into my skin?
to feel what it's like to be me?
My skin won't let you in
There's no room
I'm stretched as tight as can be
A second skin to you?
to hold you breathless?
I don't think so
You won't even be able to open a pocket
so tell me
why do you want
into my skin?
Away in a bottom drawer
where cobwebs cling
giving testimony to absences
and dried insects are stuck
in sticky strands
I exclaim
look, look here
and you cannot hear
my thoughts
A big fly lands on shirts
stacked in a corner of the drawer
I do not interfere with that fate
my eyes land on a pair of gray slacks
time keels backward
visions and memories
stretched tight around
your sweet lines
that never walked naked into
any street
Outside
the sun warms windows and alleyways
Your long shirt
hid a broken zipper
Can you get a ticket for wearing
broken pants
on Primrose Lane?
City echoes called us
a day on a town with no name
It was good to walk by your side
Seperate and equal
wearing our own jeans.
*********
