The Glory Of True Love

Outback

Your friend's ashes are waiting far from where he asked you
to scatter them, while you are finding yourself staring down into
an eighth of an inch of blood on a dinner plate (finish your beer),
listening to a father and his college-aged daughter talking easily
and openly (you're starting toward maudlin, so move out)
teenage boys hold the doors open, think of silken black hair,
arms, veins, lips
when suddenly a family,
two parents in glasses and their three small children
moves innocently through, a brood...

You're brooding soon, under the moon
smelling the wet black parking lot
removing the thing from your jacket pocket
arranging it so that it points up under your chin 
then firing while still walking long strides
which just knocks you down, breaks your jaw,
but more importantly, your train of thought.

Great Compilation

November Evenings

There's something about night falling
in November, a brief and solemn
excitement, the last lights
of a sinking ship

Do you like Winter?
Not really.
You should move somewhere warm then.
But the twilight tells me to
Stay.

Errand Boy

Explain to a formerly smart, vivacious, attractive
twenty year old girl that the life she knew just last month
may not be coming back ever again.

Tell her that what's bothering her now is not
exactly what she thinks it, but an illness that
never goes away, though with time, might be
better understood and, with strict medication
compliance, even managed.

You tell her.

A Car Is Not A Home Until You Make It One

Six a.m. sleeping in the car
with the sounds of wind and rain and morning traffic
a day like this strips away the last of the leaves
and the hope 
softens us up like an artillery barrage
before Winter's frontal assault
change is coming, I am changing.