Listen!

She stood so tall
so straight
looking at a world
just beyond her reach,
so full of wonder
but so impossibly outside of her.

Then she screamed
for that world
and everything within it
to listen...
For once,
just listen to me.

I knew what she meant...
She often muttered it to me
during those quiet moments
when we bumped into each other
stumbling through life on
our separate paths.

It wasn't
be like me.
It wasn't
look at me.
It wasn't even
love me.

It was just
Let me be me.
That's all I want.
That's all I need.
That's all I have.








On watching the last guinea on her railing...April, 2006

Handguns

I don't carry a handgun
cause I would have shot
that guy
in the theatre
when he punched me
for having the audacity
to ask him if his cell phone call
was so important
he had to annoy the people sitting
around him
watching the Gestapo
take Anne Franck away
and
that guy who
stole my camera
while I was picnicking
with my wife
on a grassy hilltop
on a day
I would otherwise remember
as a perfect day
with a perfect person
so maybe they should be glad
I don't carry a handgun
or
maybe it's really me
who should be glad
now I don't have to live
with much worse memories