Poet & Teacher

Did you read between the lines
think that same thought
wonder after each
sun glanced strand of light
on a memory you never had
somehow amalgamated
to this moment when you knew
I thought and you thought it too

And then the whole world
made sense

Fantasy of could have been
And if it could have been
perhaps it is

In a way we both know
impossible possibly
possible
if we want it
in some ways
it is so

If I ask you
if you want it
it will be gone though

Heisenberg ruins everything
Nerve to look you in the eye
tell you so

Dreams dream in in betweens
holding together supposed to bes

with whimsical loss
continual almost

We weave the logic of
what we know

When first the world stormed
did panic arise over whether
it would ever
again be dry?

Never and ever
harbingers of
It’s gone to far
the argument should have stopped
a few turns ago but here we are

And then when
likely and often came
with their gray days
Did things improve
or worsen?

So much temptation
in calibration
Measured gradation
temperature taking

What has one foot and no leg?
A day of riddles
always awaits

Alarm bells sound
circumnavigation made!

Firework songs bait
the second hand to jump
ship departure vacation
Destinations shimmer
sadness abates
the year dissipates
like due

Tired passengers
recently arrived
on our Mobius strip
stop panning for gold

Ominous dreams of monotony
backed by the sunrise settle
care of gravity

Have we made it?
New frontiers beckon
Awake! Awake!

You are crying inconsolably in the cafeteria
child after child has told me so
They flock to you with smiles and jokes
trying to undo what they do not even know

Unspeakable truths have e¬¬nsued
you told a friend who told an adult
and now more someones know and try to make space
to say he did this and that and someone should say
It was not your fault

I hope those words
and someone to hold you

***

This weekend I am at a party
and a man who once was a boy
who once squared my shoulders to the mirror
trying to make me say “I am beautiful,”
watched me cry unable to
talks to me as if these intimacies were forgotten

For the most part they are
other than I remember the slipping movie spin
slow motion the assurance I felt lost in

We cautiously hold each other’s glance
alternately safe, alternately escaping

***

Dear child, someday this is what you deserve
the probability that such kismet things exist
makes me reach for another drink

When I was your age I remember
my mother wearing embarrassing socks
and thinking when I’m fifty I’ll never let myself slide
to such a state hand to forehead duress
And so I know you cannot hear me

I want to promise you it gets better
though futures I promise are empty

How fortunate I am
how hopeless this state of things
again you are in a shelter this evening

***

I return to the man who was a boy
let go my fantastical memory of years’ ago
like a dandelion blow the wisps away and say
Tell that beautiful woman you love her
you are so lovely and she would be so lucky

I steady myself to a taxi home
and pray for people
to slowly spin
this way

After receiving my compliment
you say “it’s my winning personality”

sarcasm drowning any attempt
at exaltation

Your eyes dodge kindness
like it will be taken
protective shield activated

I have yet to learn
looking away works

That is if you know
I think about you in the morning