I’ve got the children to tend The clothes to mend The floor to mop The food to shop Then the chicken to fry

She came home running back to the mothering blackness deep in the smothering blackness white tears icicle gold plains of… She came home running

There is no warning rattle at the… nor heavy feet to stomp the foyer… Safe in the dark prison, I know t… light slides over the fingered work of a toothless

Beloved, In what other lives or lands Have I known your lips Your Hands Your Laughter brave

Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone

We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of lonelines… until love leaves its high holy te… and comes into our sight

Tears The crystal rags Viscous tatters Of a worn-through soul Moans

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing

A last love, proper in conclusion, should snip the wings forbidding further flight. But I, now,

When I think about myself, I almost laugh myself to death, My life has been one great big jok… A dance that’s walked A song that’s spoke,

We wear the mask that grins and li… It shades our cheeks and hides our… This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subt…

Shadows on the wall Noises down the hall Life doesn’t frighten me at all Bad dogs barking loud Big ghosts in a cloud

Beloveds, now we know that we know… Without notice, our dear love can… In the instant that Michael is go… Though we are many, each of us is… Only when we confess our confusion…

When you come to me, unbidden, Beckoning me To long-ago rooms, Where memories lie. Offering me, as to a child, an att…