23rd
10-22
1
You aren’t sitting in the airplane chair
but under the striped cape
you hunch uncomfortably under the scissors
like a petulant child being tortured by stillness
Little-boy eyes peering from under shaggy ends
as chocolate locks fall to the linoleum
Walking down Bedford
the sun reveals the minuscule bits of hair
stuck to your shirt and neck
And I can sense your wish
to go back
gather what’s being swept from the floor
and start again
2
Waiting
wondering and thinking the worst
Waiting
filling the minutes with busyness
Waiting
is the hardest part
3
Did I say
yesterday
everything
I was supposed to say?
I’ve spent the morning
on replay
wondering
is there another way
to say
I love you?
4
Love
is stronger than science
Faith
is more real than medicine
Hope
is truer than knowledge
5
Morning is the best time
when he takes his place
on the blue stoop
coffee in hand
to greet the day
as shopkeepers open their doors
and children drag themselves to school
he sees the neighborhood
changing, unchanging
early in the day
when there is possibility
of a smile or conversation
that is when he is alive
6
Your voice is sure
calm authority
in the storm
7
Face in a magazine
trying hard to be unseen
arms crossed and eyes lowered
wanting to remain undiscovered
in this, the city of achievers
we’ve all become believers
in the great art of invisibility
8
This, usually,
is the place
of getting stuck.
F*&k.
9
Trying to avoid
the void
the blackest black
of darkest depths
Climbing out
of screaming doubt
One inch at a time
They say it gets better
if you speak it they say
it can’t hurt you
if you talk it away
But sometimes it’s easier
to be in it
To embrace
the saddest sad
and the maddest mad
just for a minute
10
Just to sit one moment
in your presence
just to be still and silent
where you are
How I have longed
to simply speak your name
and hear you whisper in return
Welcome back
