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--YOU ARE MY MOST RECENT MEMORY

The Weight of Ruin

She didn’t like it

When he kissed her

Kept her mouth gated

Hiding teeth and tongue

In the reflection her eyes wide

But bored like a stuffed owl

Collecting dust in a stale barroom

The old grandfather clock coughed

And stared at them with great

Disappointment and distaste

Another couple kicked to the curb

When the kids returned from the game

All four sat in the living room

Munching buttered popcorn

Some fixated on their phones

Others on the weight of ruin

White Space Days

There was a time when

White space welcomed me

Everything too easy

Music writing itself

No thesaurus needed

Now it’s hard labor

And second guesses

I’m that eagle hoovering

In the sky unsure where

The prey is below

Starving and desperate

  

Dancing With Books

All the books I own are

Up and dancing around me

It’s the Tower of Babel only with paper

Who knew books could be so jovial

So graced with rhythm and balance

That poetry could do the Charleston

And Samba the Blitzkrieg Bop

I get up and start moving

Can’t quite call it dancing

White men can’t jump and

That sort of thing

But I’ve got it in me now

The music spilling from those words

Sentences swaying in a close embrace

When my daughter finds us

She looks like she’s 
Caught me masturbating

Asks if I can at least t
Turn the music down

Then heads down the hall

To her own room