Ten Poems in Less Than 3 Hours

On a slow Saturday at work, I free-wrote these poems. I keep them together like this because 1) it's the order I wrote them, 2) they reflect a range of emotions and thoughts I was feeling that day

TEN POEMS IN LESS THAN 3 HOURS

August 30, 1998

 

 

I Can Only Do

 

I can only do

What is right for me

What will make me happy

What will satisfy my needs

 

It may sound selfish

But isn’t that

What you do?

 

 

Simple

 

It seems so simple

Respect

 

You with your religion

Your church

You call yourself Christian

And I

Call myself nothing

 

Then why am I

The one

Who believes in

Do unto others?

  

Fog Bank

 

Creeping over the green

Pink

Like cotton candy

Crawling with fluffy fingers

Spiky hair on top

Alive and breathing

With the morning

Burning and dying

With the sun

 

 

To Work

 

On my way to work

For the hundredth

Thousandth time

 

Asleep

With open eyes

On Auto-pilot

 

85

For no reason

I’m not late

 

Rushing

Towards what

Towards who

 

  

Missing

 

Can’t you smile

At me

     just once more

 

What will it hurt

What do you think

    I would do

 

I never meant

To scare you

 

I never meant

To love you

How Can I

 

How can I be so

Different

From who I once was

 

Whose eyes are these

These eyes

That see things so strange

That once were so familiar

 

How can I be homesick

For home I’ve not

Yet known

 

That day in high

Montana mountains

Just snow and trees and breeze

And me

Crisp air in my

Lungs

I closed my eyes

And saw

Simplicity

No hustle

No bustle

Of the City

Not a thousand beating

Hearts

Just mine

In tune with

Another’s

The one in my belly

The one

At my side

Planes

 

They come and

They go

They never stop

Where do they go

Back home

On vacation

A funeral

A wedding

On business

    with a mistress

A drink

And a bad meal

A book that’s not read

Strangers in a shell

 

 

No Room for Me

 

I dreamed you last night

The strange

Disjointed sort of dream

With you

But without you

You were mine

But everybody else’s, too

 

First I was in red

Then in black

Chasing after you

But tired of trying to keep up

Squeeze with you into a car

With only room for one?

Only room for you?

No thanks

I’ll walk

Howard’s Still Funny

 

Howard’s still funny

And I wonder

Are you listening, too

 

Who is making you

Laugh

Who is making you

Smile

 

I hope someone

Somewhere In Mexico

 

Somewhere in Mexico

On a beach

In a bar

 

How can I envy

An entire country

 

Because she’s where you

Want to be

Today

She gets to see

Your smile

To feel your touch

As you sleep

On her sand

She casts her

Love upon your face

And turns it golden

In the sun

Her breeze winds

Fingers through your hair

And drifts your scent

To the tops of the trees

 

But soon

You’ll leave her, too

And she’ll miss you

Too