I fought my battles I did my time, I did it well Bitter memories of the hell I lived. Broken dreams and broken men Are all behind me now Many miles I walked alone To stand on one last hill. Now I see the desert, my journey’s end. Add one bloody green jacket, All I have. Don’t ask my future or my past Just see my jacket It’s all I
Under the nervous street light The cat crosses over stealthily Pausing at the edge Of the darker side. One eye flashes And it’s gone Into the margins. Black impregnates black The seed of a dream Behind the slumbering houses. I flutter through empty space A little man with little wings And a mouse’s tail. Suddenly I feel a knife In the back of my neck. I reel, collapse, plummet Drowning
Bright light, whiter than the sun, glittered for an instant before the sound split my ears and I dissolved, my last and only thought that no one would know I had come home. Years later, my daughter paused on a remote sidewalk and stared down at my shadow, which had been seared into the pavement. She thought of me, lost in an era of misguided honor, and wondered where I
That thou punished me and made me hate thee is true. But I promised to be wise thereafter and seek thy grace. Why didst thou forsake me for my faults when I merely mimicked thy heckling tribe? I loved thee when thou strok’st me and taught me the charms of thy art. But now that I am subject to none, my torment is solitude. Prithee, magician, return to these sands!
I’m so thankful for dryer sheets, For midnight sleets that keep me Inside when I’d rather be under the stars Puffing a Marlboro. I make late night calls to Mom, When she or I finally become so tired We begin slurring our slurs, And, listening, my father says, “It sure ain’t no game for Simple folk, thats for sure,” And I bring forth laughter Because I know he has never
At this late stage If the shoe fits Buy it. For comfort is harder to find And a little jig Can jar the memory To green fields and pop flies And star flecks of first love. Maybe even buy a second pair (the first you might yet outwear) So you won’t lose pace And become trampled In the long procession To that promised playground. But maybe not. Double vision is
