YEAH, RIGHT

You're talking like a sailor to me
Strutting like a peacock, proud
And I wonder suddenly,
"What should my reaction be this time?"

You smirk and you smirk and you smirk
And you think you know me, don't you
You don't know me
I've got news for you. You don't know me.

For how could you begin to know
When I don't even know myself?
All I really know
Is that what you're doing isn't working.

Won't work. Can't work. I won't let it work.
Just give up the act, won't you?
You're not getting to me.
No, not getting to me at all.

Man, you're getting to me.
On my nerves, I mean.
That's what I meant.
Don't tell me what I meant.

Pool Hall Jazz

Cue balls clank and thump in green
Angle-arched patterns 'neath neon gleam.
Smoke-curl tendrils writhe in streams,
Float on currents of wet-warm breath.

Butter-warm light-cones pierce the shadow,
Fall graceful from glass-globed lamps.
Above chalk blue tips poised for play
With arm-bent tapping amorous.

Fire flares in flickering flash
Twixt two fingers poised--grey ash.
You talk. I laugh. Sly smile and wink.
Clink of ice in short-glassed drink.

TESTING THE WATERS

With fingers curled, uncertain, yes
This unworthy hand stretches forth
Do I see what I, but, oh no
Surely not from you, not for me
Study, I would, your sultry eyes
Plumb their furthest inner reaches

And, ah, do you reach too, trembling
Or in your eyes a reflection
I see, reaching, tentatively
And if I dare, and if I dare
Will you run like a frightened deer
Or bite the hand that feeds, that bleeds

Or if not, oh if not, what then
If my touch should go unchallenged
Still trepedatious will I be
For then, after all is said
And sighs and ohs and "yes, I do"
Will the flesh still flame the same

But who am I to think of that
No promises, oh, make me none
For who am I, there is no us
Not yet, not yet, and gently now
I stretch forth, slowly forth, to you
Please, don't run away, don't run, don't

A NEW EDEN

You blow spring whispers on the wind,
Fingering chords of a luscious deep--
Shadowy harp-song in my mind
To drive delirious death to sleep.

Upon the sea a moon-spray moves,
A stormy, heaving, evening light,
Which but a languid mist it leaves
Of dew-wet grass and fire-fly flight.

Sing softly still of love, my sweet.
In panting waves of aching skin,
And rain like fire in streaks of heat.
I'll clasp you tightly once again.

I, a gorgeous garden goddess,
Will dare to shake the peach fruit tree--
Not one forbidden, but no less
Desired and devoured by me.

Delicious as a symphony,
Your honeyed tongue plays trippingly.

Letter from Galatea

My waking is your moontime sleeping.
Like Michelangelo's Dusk and Dawn,
We're rough-hewn still, not fully formed.

I clad myself in marble once,
Smooth surface no place for clinging hands--
Solid, strong, cool monument of woman.

But I would not be your place of worship,
Nor sacred saint with beads to count,
So, slowly, white stone becomes flushed and warm.

Naked, unafraid, I breathe deep and quit my pediment perch
To find you too are flesh and bone.
The tenderest part of me curls around your skin,

And tucks you in to sweetest dreams

Sometimes Wish....

I wonder if I'll always be alone
Or if I could be with you forever.
Sometimes wish I could call you on the phone
And tell you the truth, but it's always blown.
Instead, I try to be far too clever.
I wonder if I'll always be alone.
Woke after dreaming the real me was shown
To you--you said, "Keep it under cover."
Sometimes wish I could call you on the phone
To ask you if you feel like life has flown
Away from you, or if you say (ever),
"I wonder if I'll always be alone."
Is it only me who seems to have grown
Disconcerted with the simple answer?
Sometimes wish I could call you on the phone,
But would you tell me that I ought to own
Up to the facts--true love may be never?
I wonder if I'll always be alone.
Sometimes wish I could call you on the phone.

LOVE'S TRUE PHILOSOPHY

Vine and vine and leaf and leaf
Bind together each to each
Holding you and holding me
Breezes blowing tree and tree
Shivers from both sight and sound
Bodies clasping on the ground
Sighs together of devotion
Life is filled with sweet emotion
What is sin and in whose eyes
Does Nature teach these little lies
Eye to eye and mind to mind
I think the liar's humankind

Bad Kharma

Hoped for lightening to strike
But it only rained that day--
Not in the cards,
Not in the stars,
Never mind the planets of Venus or Mars.

Would changing choices alter aught,
Or were missed chances preordained?
What's to say?
What's to blame?
The end result's the very same.

So fare thee well, my lover/friend.
The nether-fate we'll never know--
Out of step,
Out of time.
Whose bad karma, yours or mine?

TRAFFIC JAM

Green or red is clear to me
I know just what to do
But I can't read your signals
They're yellow all day through

Which way to the off-ramp?
I'm lookin' for a sign
Which way to the off-ramp?
I hope you're doin' fine

Your stop and go
Is killing me
If I can't have you
Then set me free

Stay or go--I just don't see
Which way I need to look
I wish that you'd explain it all
In a user's manual book

I'd keep it in my glove box
Consult it when confused
Thereby avoiding accidents
With every page perused

Your stop and go
Is killing me
If I can't have you
Then set me free

Do We Dance the Tarantella?

Flick the fan and click the heels,
Turn, spin, glide, wheel,
Eyes smoulder, lips part
Grace, wit, charm, art
Do you hear the music too?