AN OLD MAN AND HIS SHADOW
Vines redden, brown on the steel fences
Surrounding the houses on the street
Where the old man strolls.
An autumn chill causes him to roll down his sleeves.
Spread out on the sidewalk,
The old man's shadow crawls towards the old man's
body.
The shadow is lonely,
Not being attached to anyone.
His shadow could never get close to him.
If the shadow had been closer,
His past life would have been different.
If his shadow had been connected to him,
He would not have wasted his life.
But he denied his shadow,
Stayed apart from his shadow,
Let a gap of empty space
Separate himself from his shadow.
DARK TEARS
Dark tears slip out of the body,
Try not to be seen,
The tears are looking
For a place to hide,
Anywhere to hide, debris, filth.
Truth is afraid to be seen;
It is too dangerous in a society of liars.
The liars
Have their hired assassins
Consoled by beer and poker chips,
Awaiting the call
To execute any appearance of the truth.
RATS
I watched a family,
A mother rat
And her children
Gnaw
Through the wood of my floor.
They entered,
Sought scraps of food
Carelessly dropped.
I watch the rats happily nibbling,
Thought
I should have scattered my poems
On the floor
For the darling rats to read.
No,
Rats cannot live on words
As human being do.
If I had dropped my poems
On the floor
Instead of crumbs,
The rats still would be
Tormented with hunger.
SUMMER CONVERSATION
I've never been in this place before. But
You have. When? This winter when
The snowflakes were black, when
The wind was a rumor of jasmine,
During the birth of the drowned tambourine.
Now I remember. You remember.
Yes, I lived here for years inside a cage.
My companion was a statue of Aphrodite,
But it crumbled into dust.
I keep a dish of the white dust on the mantelpiece.
GRINS AND GIN
No gules on casements or flesh,
Only gin on the window sill,
On floor, a book of Keats.
Abyssinian cat's amber eyes
Roam in the room.
On piano, as statuary,
Red shoes fading to pink,
Although desired scarlet.
Afternoon spent
At an art auction.
Grins concealed contempt,
Riveted the faces,
Kept the chins
Below the lips,
The eyes on each side
Of the nose.
All the facial parts
Stayed in expected places
Because
The facial gestures false.