Poem 22

Alone

"My friends should be around here,"

he says.

He scans the crowded hall,

finally jumping down the stairs

to a group of people there.

You follow.

You strike a pose near him,

as though watching for

somebody else.

But he doesn't notice.

He's forgotten you in their jokes

and the rolling of eyes.

Dejected, rejected,

you sit alone across the way,

watching him through unmoving lids.

Once, he glances in your direction.

Poem 21

Blessing

You'll realize, in time,

How much you take for granted,

How your heart beats in your chest,

How your mind is uncluttered and free.

You're blessed.

Look around you.

Ask me, I know --

If you can, you are rich.

You don't need to depend

On people you've never seen before.

You can do so much.

Take your chance.

Be free.

Poem 20

Pass or Fail

Tell the truth.

Don't flatter me,

Don't please me,

Tell me

the

Truth.

Tell the truth.

Do you even care?

Or do you just put up

with me?

I want to hear

what I mean to you

So tell the truth,

tell

the truth.

I want to hear

that you care,

that you're there,

that I mean something

to you

but

I want to hear

only

the truth.

Poem 19

Kiss in the Air

There might have been something

between us in the air.

Who can tell if I imagined it,

or if you were actually holding back

and a kiss for me lingered there?

You could have put your arm around me,

smiled, stroked my hair --

or did I just imagine

that kiss between us in the air?

Maybe your mind was on other things,

your focus not quite there,

for I studied the eyes that never turned to me,

in the face that is so fair.

But something made me stop and wonder,

for you moved with so much care,

if maybe I didn't imagine it --

our kiss still in the air.

Poem 19

last night as i slept

-- last night as i slept
i dreamt all i loved was locked in a cage
by white coats that wanted to study it.
i pleaded and cried
and tried to save it
but they stood stiff as ice.
it was wasting away,
all alone behind bars
that weren't its fault.
i never managed to succeed,
though i tried with all my heart --
and by the end it had passed on.

When I awoke
I remembered you were gone.

Emulation of "13 ways of looking at a blackbird"

13 ways of looking at a hand

I
Out of the corner of your eye
you see the movement
of many hands.

II
A hand alone
is complete.
Two hands intertwined
are complete.

III
Of all the parts of your body,
your hands
pledge to help you the most.

IV
A ballet dance.
Graceful hands.

V
The fire is crackling
and he stretches out
his feet and hands
to warm them from the cold.

VI
You look at them close up --
hands are so big.
Look up.
See the stars and moon.
how big are those specks of pink
now?

VII
Her hands with tapered pale nails,
settled on her lap
as though they were not there.

VIII
The child clutches his blankets to his chin,
terrified
that the shadows dancing on the wall
will reach out with spindly hands
and capture him.

IX
Behind the screen, the movement of a hand
twirls purposefully.

X
Long arm,
gently bent at the elbow,
thinning into wrist
with a strong hand at the end.

XI
Do you not see
the war veterans
without arms?
Without arms they have no hands.

XII
The man takes her hand
and lightly brushes his lips
across her fingers.

XIII
In the loneliness of an empty room,
the only absence
is of dancing hands.

GAH

Oh my gosh, where has the time gone? I actually haven't written much lately, just a few poems that I don't have with me at the moment. Update ASAP. I am working on something that came ot me today, though.

Perhaps the rain falls too lightly

alighting on curly red hair...