A COOL CUP OF TEA
In the time it takes to cool a cup of tea,
I have thought about you in a thousand ways.
Worry not even seeded. That’s how young we were then.
On the street at twilight, I saw a man
And it was you, then.
Glinting eye professor---
Straight back.
In no particular hurry.
And I’m still me, the scholar,
Unsullied by little cancers, repetition, and the mistake of following
Good advice.
In that particular moment, I’m free, the clay just dried.
Not wrinkled, thickened, full of wisdom.
I’m not even in love with you in that particular moment.
And that’s better for both of us.
In the time it takes to sip the tea, down to leaves,
I have thought about the thousand days we tried.
Instead of love, we buried something with roots.
Incarnated, damp.
Grown by moonlight-a glowing ball of wool,
The sky studded with needlepricks to a brighter world.
A MESSAGE FROM ISIS
Until last month or so, I was the patroness of nature and magic,
A friend of slaves, sinners, artisans
Protector of the dead.
Don’t let the heavy eyeliner fool you. I appreciate the irony of our
shared name.
You’d think after all these centuries, there’d be less savage methods
to resolve our differences. But then
Again, I speak with a more or less permanent view of our mortal
follies.
The mystery of crucifixion, crusades,
hair shirts, Buddha’s awakening,
voodoo, burning bushes, monks,
vows of silence, chastity, obedience, Oprah, Oz, Quoran, Vedic
Verses, Sanskrit, Inquisition, Popes, Padre Pio,
Yet
The blood of innocent, the hapless adventurers still congeals in the
sand like dark pomegranate jelly.
And a mother’s cry for the unbearable loss of an only son echoes to
heaven again.
METRO NORTH TO GRAND CENTRAL, FRIDAY NIGHT
There is the smell of brakes grinding upon
the approach of a station--
Metal and sparks burned down to a powder
inside the car, invisible reminder.
Red seats cradle the bobbing heads, wiry gray,
caps and scarves like the tops of birds,
now all asleep.
But others are awake waiting.
Soon we arrive at Grand Central Majesty-
last century’s brass, the echo of cities and numbers
One more stop to go.
The girl, three rows ahead has a voice of sugar,
the boyfriend’s goes deeper---of innings, seasons, games, good
seats,
but thinking of her open lips,
the sheen inside her lips,
Her hair is pulled caramel.
And the others:
pinstripes,;
the rasta’s black, red, yellow green crochet like a beehive;
a young man dreaming, his fingers twitching like flies.
The giddy girls,
The cellphone junkies.
This week has been what it’s been.
Hands on the burled boardroom table--- a sea of starfish,
Meetings, summaries of summaries, and the presumption of guilt
By any party aware that there are just two suits separating us each
from each other, the boss, the dean, the writer, the temp
This week has been what it’s been,
This train is taking us in.
The speed of passing blackness,
Like the city ahead, glowing,
But the reflection of my window doesn’t move until I turn away.
I will empty into the station,
Passing the architecture of opinion, storefronts lit, doors locked
tight, the rumble and roar, manhole covers plunking, and steam
rising.
Returning safely
To everything I am terrified of losing.
SWEET SIXTEEN
You, my love, are an orchid. Delicate, fragile, and rare.
You suffer the slight ambient change, the gardener’s rough hands;
Wilt from shrill sounds, seek partial shade.
And I fear you will not survive.
I’m no rock. But of heartier stock---more hedge than flower.
A place to hide behind, a thing to trim, to shape in topiary.
Evergreen.
I am still your storyteller,
Still surprised I can impart wisdown to your questions.
“Tell me again, tell me again, what to say and when,” you repeat,
again, again, again.
I cling to myself, or drown under the weight of all your
possibilities
I exercise restraint, avoid the sour complaint, until I feel it seeping
to a darker place.
I am the silence in which your voice is heard.
I am the blue branch, and you are the bird.
I know it won’t be over until one of us is gone, but I still wonder
why we never mention our deaths, the fear of going, the fear of
being alone.