short poems of despair and isolation

TIME
The clocks do not tick
time does not waste
not even the seconds proceed
until subjected
to our desperate gaze.


TWO SHADOWS
In this room
there once stood
a couch in the corner
and a bed by the side
and from amid the flooding
midsummer rays
two shadows were known to float
swimming side by side.


PIG
A plastic pig on a hot spit roast
and all my flesh is numb
as within its fumes I am consumed
yet refused recompense
despite this vulgar display of disgust.


FACE
Across from my room
a face, flesh and blood
protrudes defiant
through the aligned and orthodox symmetry
of the countless rows of windows
etched in a tower
built of red brick and steel.


MORNING
Quarter to five in the morning
the cars and the houses
the streetlamps and signposts
aberrations suspended in the stillness
waiting for their masters to arise
and relieve them of their indifference.


UNNECESSARY
Today I made love with a beautiful woman
I worked towards the completion of a thesis
I laughed and made jokes
Impressing in my social manners
I smoked and I drank
I indulged my senses
in the dionysian frenzy
I talked philosophy
I wrote philosophy

Then I wrote this
which was totally unnecessary.


DEMONS
All these demons have come and gone
in ghostly apparitions
through fields of dreams
of nightmares and visions

In light of day the devils have tread
ever so lightly over these fields
to embark and rest
on our uncharted shores
and claim the nights we know are theirs
yet dare not ask from whence they came
nor dare reflect our faces in theirs.


EMPTINESS
Emptiness has weight, it is heavy
silence makes noise, it is loud

His holiness prays for our souls
which makes the burden
all the more unbearable.


DYING
You've seen your share
so now close your eyes
And why be afraid?
Why call such silly robed men by your side?
For the eyes that do not seek
the hands that cannot touch
the mouths that do not speak
and the memories that are no longer remembered
cannot possibly hurt you anymore.


SOUVENIRS
The children now
will watch when you were young
in gratitude of your trust
before turning their faces from the screen
to see
that beauty and youth
can only promise
what memories can promise of a dream.


SO GOOD
You look so good
and me, at this bar
and they
who do they think they are?
gazing
over a hundred faces
each of them unique
but they all look alike
and you look so good.


SALVATION
I gave all I had
and had not
I gave my time, my hopes
my mind and my sanity,
for my one savior
to create my one savior
so that I too may have
my salvation.


FEAR
I met fear
not on an open ocean
surrounded by waves
nor on the end of a rope
dangling from a bridge
nor when Gonzalo and I drove
one hundred miles per hour
around Lake George

I met fear
sitting on a curb
in the midday sun
in the heart of a city
surrounded by people.


BITCH
Get
off
of
me
you
bitch


AFFIRMATION
Through the meandering of a thousand indecisions
one thousand indisposed dispositions
affirm one out through these rich pickings
of fools and tarts and nights and high reasons
from "Count him out, he's past his season!"
affirm one out, they're crowding for positions
of trials and errors and hearts and renditions
affirm this cycle
these heart-rending conditions

So wrench one out and be on your chosen way
only to arrive again and again
in every hour of every day
to find
that you'd never even left.


AMAZING GRACE
Only the heavy ones, they can fly
if it's flight that is called for
only the dead and dying
they can live
if it's life indiscriminate
that has become so precious
only the heartless ones, they can love
if it is love that they are lusting for
only the ugly ones, they can thrive
if riches are what beauty is paid for
and only the mediocre, they can be heroes
if it is heroes the masses are clamoring for

And what of the light ones
the beautiful ones, the brave ones?
Not even grace can save them.


LANDSCAPE
A landscape I've concocted
set to view
on a scale one to one
first with its topography
next with its own physics and chemistry
then with its creatures and cultures and languages

Then I invented me
and placed myself into this
only to be confronted by another
whose world had been confronted
by another.


THINKING
A song and a dance
and all of life's pleasures
captured
as if in a trance...
and here I am thinking again.