Measure

The measure of us in them.

Tell me now stranger, if I serve myself

 

In delicious ambiguity on your platter

 

Would you taste me bit by bit?

 

Would you gulp down my consciousness

 

Of eternity in seconds to come

 

Ticked in time by magenta sunsets?

 

 

Tell me now, tell me a little of your forefathers

 

And how you metamorphosed into the strangeness

 

That I see today, that I see now.

 

Tell me how you lived and how you laughed

 

And how you loved--

 

Tell me all of them scratch by scratch

 

While I measure myself.

 

 

Tell me tales of the seagulls

 

And how they flew overhead

 

When you embarked on your journey

 

Of ten thousand miles across light years

 

And seven seas’ ugly lonesome nights.

 

 

Tell me about the northern lights and the winds

 

That blew my slumber away in dreams to come.

 

Tell me now, for I long to hear them

 

From your lips, from your eyes.

 

Your voice creeps into my ruggedness

 

And wakes me up; stirs me down

 

Like a cup of freshly brewed coffee

 

That is how you taught me to measure myself.

 

 

And I measured this stark consciousness

 

Dressed in satin and silk from the Far East

 

Elegant as the regal attire, delicate as the dew drop tiara

 

And I measured myself and grasped the meaning

 

Of the wondrous look in your eyes

 

That I am priceless!