Another Eulogy

The bird flies before you
A trail of burning bushes
Burning eyes clenched in your fists

It's too damn easy to love
Especially to those who can't give it
Can't even take it
Though anyone can be worthy
If they have some combination of all
That you crave so strongly
Longing to be given
And possessed
Free and sure

It's too damn easy to sit down
Keeping your hands busy
Waiting for someone else to feed you
      And take you
      And make you
      And let you love them with all
The little that you have-
But they never want you-
Or your gifts
In return for nothing you ever ask for...
Hope and misery
Fear, eternal fear
And so many deaths
Surround the present
Killing yourself with bad habits
Born from worse memories and forebodings

There must be a place where the well springs
And there will be no more smoke
From dead dreams that keep me warm at night

This Time

Every time I fall in love

I pray to remember

My dearly-departed’s

Face and eyes and ears and neck

The way his chest felt against my cheek

How his kisses melted me

And I flush to recall

Nothing sweeter

Than our hands held together

Walking in the woods

Flashes

It’s hard to think

With memories of you

Wrapped around my neck

Choking me in clearly perfumed images

Visions of your glances

Like so many others

Lightning in my mind

I can’t sleep at night

Again, always

Love will forever run me ragged

For so little