Better off

Remember this, but never write it down;
It’s too important as a memory
To be mistaken for a tragedy
Or mere historical event. You frown,
Explaining you were heading into town
When everything blew up. I think the key
Is what you’re feeling now, not what you see,
Not certainty — a verb and not a noun.

That’s why I said, Don’t set it down in writing:
Things change — impermanence rules us
From its high throne, while we’re riding the bus,
Pretending that the future, so inviting,
Is what we’ve been creating. Kill the lighting —
We’re better off in darkness. Please don’t fuss.

Recurring Dream

I still remember that recurring dream
Of seesaw kisses stolen near the ferns
Beside the door to your hotel, quick turns
Around the ballroom, skin like coffee cream
Turning to meet my hand, turning to steam,
Forgetting I’m a man who never learns:
The world has no concern for my concerns
However delicate, rash, or extreme.

So I keep hoping, carry on. You said
That nothing would remain now, at the last,
And you were right, of course. The dreaming past
Always will stay with me, here in my bed.
As always, I’m alone, my aching head
Still in the clouds, my hopes still rising fast.

Out in the World

I never claimed that I would be intrepid
In the face of danger. I was scared
When I was told the water had turned tepid
And there were pictures of my weak chest, bared,
Out in the world. Out in the world my skin,
Too pale, too sallow, showed my true, bare soul,
A sickly thing made of paper and tin,
As shallow as a wading pool, but whole.
We travel outward now, we venture forth
Out in the world, and at the very least
We try the Golden West, attempt the north
(Santa!), the south (penguins?), and end up east,
Way East of Eden, with the ones cast out
So much like us, dismissed in a great rout.

Merry Pranks

Won’t you involve yourself in merry pranks
To prove you’re just a regular right guy?
Instead, you sit there like a lump and sigh
Like lovelorn women on the riverbanks,
Deciding when to throw themselves in. Cranks!
You can’t be — nobody is — quite that shy,
Quite so hopeless. Grab that girl slipping by,
Give her a kiss, bring her along, give thanks

You’ve got some balls. Or haven’t you? What’s there,
There in your chest? A heart, or something less?
These merry pranks are something we confess
To prove our manliness, how we don’t care
What people think of us. We always dare
Anything. There’s nobody to impress.