Sending May Away

May 2013

Another Memorial Day

 

I sit here

in this early

evening light

trying to remember

as much as I can

about the last time

I had to forgot so very much.

 

Every second of

this short season I savor

licking my lips with shadows

swimming across dusty

concrete seas roaring

in a twin tide of

desire and sound

rolling smoke ghosts

swirling in sunlit shafts

in the hairs of my mustache. 

 

I know what all this cost

as much as this twilight

coming to putting her

tongue in my ear

with such messages

of perception and madness.

 

There isn’t any amnesia

left here anymore.

Where the time

eludes you with what

terrifies to recall

while you feel

your flesh crawl

in goose bumps

over what will

never happen

if you choose

this time

to forget. 

 

                                                                                     –  Sometimes Grief  2012

 *

 

Another Bar Fly

 

 Another bar fly

with a vintage motorcycle

wants a chilled mixed drink

kind of like a milkshake with vodka

Bartender doesn’t really want to be bothered.

 

Another bar fly

wants to be your pal

his vintage motorcycle runs great

but needs a coat of paint.

 

Another bar fly

wants something to crawl on.

He wants to ride his vintage motorcycle

down to the lake and look

for all the lost years and scenes.

 

Nobody is around however.

Some got old.

Some are dead.

Some grew up.

 

So another bar fly finishes his booze malted

and beats it

draws heat

draws comments

rubbernecks

cursing for a bruising.

 

But then some old legitimate Vet

shows up and it’s his birthday and

he hasn’t had a drink since new years

and he freshly fallen off the wagon

and he remembers everything.

 

Bartender makes him the B-day house specialty

hands him a lit sparkler and puts on the Rolling Stones.

 

And then the old Vet starts bringing the dead back to life.

 

–Attitude House 2001