PRAYER

 

Hear the silence,

Hear the sleeping leaves.

Hear the waiting tarmac

And the dew distil.

 

Out there in

The hanging black

Is a poetry

One false word will kill.

 

Out there walks a

Black dressed muse.

Call me, wed me

To your use.

 

DRINKING SONG

 

We're both on the bottle.

Rivals for her varied love.

 

You hate my

Graceless barking.

 

I hate your

Flaming cheek.

 

Women! Honestly!

Here, son, drink.

 

Let's crash, together,

In each other's arms.

 

 

REMORSE

 

Away! Away!

You hot night breeze

Tinkling leaves

In desiccated trees.

August squeezed

Between the summer's thighs

Brings to my eyes

Memories and forgotten song.

 

Guilt lies in love's long arms,

Slim legs entwined

Around the softly sprung

Provocative red hair.

A lingering

Without indolence

Or light-headedness

On a trace of scent.

 

Such the dream

And waking wish

But truthfully

Beneath the muscled

Loveliness and flesh

Is an unalterable

Architecture of bone.

 

Away! Away!

Unhappy air.

Back to yesterday,

Back to where

High voices part the dark

And drunken street.

When I was restless, young

And loved the warm, colossal moon.

Away! Away! Be gone!