Compilation Poem for April 23, 2015

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF COMPILATION POEM

23 April 2015

I’m okay.

I know how to close my eyes.

I could not afford to stay,

But I made the pilgrimage

Before it became a more practical work of art,

As big as taking a second wife,

A girl in a dress of broken glass

(I kept the first for another day—

The logistics just about did me in).

Stealthily before sunrise

You tripped toward me, a tangled tease,

And crossed the wide, black street;

Wandered through the woods and meadows,

Three steps on the moon.

You sent a soft letter

Which made me think of the three degrees of glory,

Clean counters, and folded laundry,

A hundred pencils with a rubber band,

The possibility of cancer.

I put them in my car with ideational animals;

That’s where they live.

We still smell like pine needles

 (Inhale, but don’t swallow—

I inhale and my heart skips a beat).

Simply waiting for the phone to ring,

I get lost in the stars.

I listen to the cry of a lonely crow.

I know that loneliness,

What the west wind whispers

When it calls out to me late into the night,

For in my chest a tiger rages,

Moves in light, dances on air,

Slayer of souls.

What is it?

What does it mean?

My astrological sign can’t explain this one.

It’s coming people—

Be ready for it.

Looking through crystal clear glass at the end of my chain,

I see through eyes that don’t seem like mine.

There is no door from the outside.

They say dreaming is dead;

No one does it anymore.

Playing pretend is a lot more fun.

I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m asleep.

I pretend I am asleep,

And before long I really am,

Surrounded by pillars of salt and coffee.

Compiled by Colin Douglas