Staying Home

 the places I want to go are closed
the people I want to see are dead
what's the point of old New York
 
museums rich in art already seen
concerts of music I used to love
no more hankering for the new 
 
city me carries on in dreams
livelier than memory's reprise
staying home the now preferred

Loving Look

 alas his eyes are long unseen
their loving look complex
challenging my existence
wryly accepting wanting me
 
and in the dream I am writing
trying to please women who
have their own idea of now
more style than I can equal
 
I do my best always sincere
despite a fondness for irony
wake with unbearable feeling
loss and desire intermingled

Too Close

to Lora

I could have spoken
up but you chose not
to reveal more than
the public story so
I'll never know you
really don't want to

Beyond Words

 stop naming composing every moment
as words as if everything distinct and
present when referred to as if anyone
ever quite gets what I mean that's not it
that's the words running away with it
 
like another sense another mode of
being in the world words overriding
actual living noise bright light bodily
smells and innumerable sensations
 
turn it off if you can already enough
said to yourself if you can remember
their names anything will do someone
loves you will know what you mean

On the Fly

 can I sit and think usually
I am doing something else
and something bubbles up
and I start writing and see
where it goes thinking on
the fly not stopping to ask
if it's the right thing or what
I want to be doing getting
lost in imaginary construct
and these days I can barely 
see the keyboard so it isn't
as easy to rattle on I do it
anyway how am I to learn
to think without writing