Summa Me

Death is dirty
it's a grow theme
it's a stop dream
in my crowded house line
it turns a trick
makes the trip stick
a bandage clot
purple-green
from rise to fall
then nothing at all.
10-30-91

Your fingers on my spine
shy and slight
like there is
a brittle angel underneath
spinning sugar
into lace and light.
4-21-93

Three words
I have said before
each time
how sad
they had
such meaning
then no more.
6-25-91

Your thoughts are with me
bonnie girl
your lucky, golden
graying curl
a dripping sink
a fountain top
the moistness of your movie eye
oh you
your songbook heart
and story life
and turning page.
2-22-92

That star
may be a planet
but just the same
it winks
and calls me baby
cuz it doesn't know
my name.
1987

The moon
and my heart
stole away
to some dark cafe
in the night
left me here
with shadows
and deep breathing
and yesterday's kiss...
10-22-94

All over that pungent floor
losing my mind
where dirty jokes were swapped
amongst customers
and bus girls
slipping along
hoping to find myself
in the night water reflection.
1987

To know you were there
touching the paper
embraced in thought
my finger runs
across the letters
feeling the tiny trenches
your pen left behind
pressure from you
from a moment of life.
1-7-88

Here
at the letter piano
fingers moving
composer of words
feeling silent concertos.
8-22-94

All new poets
armed with dusty word
nothing ever will
be heard
that hasn't already
been said
by all old poets
who are dead.
7-30-94

If I am
a wildflower
on a rolling hill
some handsome child
prefers to pluck
to soothe his mother ill
whose color fades
before I'm clipped a week
that brings the turning up
about her cheek
use all of me
to quell the awful sting
then I indeed have done
the better thing.
9-25-89