Talismans of Life and Fortune
she lived awash in frenzy,
wracked with fear;
i knew her when we both were
locked in here —
i lived, and she did not.
i don’t know why:
some stumble on, while
others stop, and die —
I wept, and watched time stop,
and space get curved:
for neither of us got what we
deserved
[For another poem on the same subject, see this. – Owen]
Back when I would go three days or so between sleeping.
Alone and wand’ring in the dark,
Out on the beach ’til very late;
With only beer to comfort him
And mem’ries streaming in a wake
The moon hangs low, disconsolate,
The waves are muffled, nearly still;
Like waiting for a morning star
That never comes
And never will
(Back when I would go three days or so between sleeping. – Owen)
“No Talent for Certainty” – still your leading blog for arrant nonsense. Even if it’s the truth.
A year before I was first married,
I long over one of these tarried;
My ex-wife would say
That I played it all day –
Sometimes I played nights. So I varied.
She crashed into my life one fateful fall,
And everything I thought or breathed was her;
A shadow, a penumbra, over all,
That left me, though in darkness, undeterred
For soft she was upon my bleeding eyes,
And hard she was in torment of desire;
The death of entropy, the natural highs,
The barrel full of leavings set on fire
That rose in smoke into the autumn night;
Inhaling as the sparks flew everywhere,
I took her by the hand into the light
Of burnt-up promises, and spent up air
I gave her all I was – there was no more –
And then she left me, empty, on the floor
I was sixteen.
I was sixteen.
I’d just been dumped
By a girl I wasn’t actually with
And who was using me
To get something else
The beautiful neighbor girl
From across the street
Had tried to tell me
This would happen
But I didn’t listen
I knocked on the neighbor girl’s door
Because I needed a friend who understood
And we talked out in my front yard
As the night grew darker
And the wind blew colder
This neighbor, who was a stunning beauty
[Actually, she still is. You know, Facebook]
As we finished our conversation
Impulsively kissed me.
It was incredible, my first kiss.
Why, I’ll never know.
It certainly never happened again.
I made as regular a practice as I could
After that time
Of kissing girls
And that kiss was one of the top four, all-time
At least, until I met my wife
Occasionally, now,
When beautiful neighbor girl (now woman) and I
Trade pleasantries online
I think about that night
I don’t know why she did it
But when she kissed me
She lifted my spirits
In such a way that
They’ve never really come down again
I took a date down to these waters
Many years ago;
To talk and watch the day go down
From light to indigo
And she was right next to me, I
Inhaled her with the air –
A scent I still remember
As though I was sitting there
And friends, among the many things
I know that I have lost;
The roads I will not find again,
The gone whose paths I’ve crossed
She sits inside me, always,
Ever beautiful, and one:
Amid palms & pavilion
At the setting of
The sun
= = = = =
Photo credit : © Erichinson | Dreamstime.com – Palms & Pavillion, Gulf Coast Photo
A true story.
I drove out to this beach one winter’s day to find it completely empty, marveling at the magnificent beauty and the sublimity of solitude, only to step on a used condom as I walked back to my car.
