I checked an old photograph
But time standing still
Was never kind to either of us
Missing is a photograph
Of us, on Miami Beach with friends
My cousin took it
And I had it for a while
Lost from even the ziploc;
A concise history of me -
What my wife and any future children
will use to make a collage
or slideshow
When I am too old to care for such things
Too old to hold my bowels
and all I can say is
Thank god we all found love in time
Not all;
Some like a bruised plum
Expecting nothing
Becoming a syrupy jam
or solitary prune
We all
Prone
Stretched out like beetles on our backs
Prawns flattened on skewer
Crawling toward a fiery end
or clawing at the very idea
Returning to bed,
One hundred some odd pounds
of hot steel, clay and flowers,
Magnificent in motion
But even more so now
Silent, still
Protecting what we know
with careful folding
Some weeding
Some mending of the fence
Celebrating all that we are
Dreaming of all that we were
Forecasting what will be
Distracted by the movement
of all the inhabitants
Currently fixing their holes
On some evening
With loosely delineated yards
Grassy alleys
I will meet you there
Guiding my own mother
To see what could have become
Instead
Pointing to a building
Amidst all the shame
Proud to have put my foot down
One day
A glass box in the sky
Everything else we may have collected,
in storage
No more uncomfortable moments;
the squirming
Clutching what little power we had
Returning to a basic principle:
Compromise
And always in some dress
That doesn't belong to you
Always feigning innocence
Or fragility
Everyone crying
Over the weakness of men
A soft light
Welcoming in
Some lonesome traveller
Some hungry need
--
8/4/08
Comments
**Slightly teary-eyed**
Thanks G