Full Moon in the Caribbean
A clouded night, a foggy moon,
the ocean full of unseen stars
escapes to the horizon. Every direction
impresses me with its depth and hiding
Given physics and time, I dream
it would be possible to foresee each movement
the waves set forth from my boat, lost
in the smallness. Such time, God had
and push me out to sea and measured
each whisper and placement of steady ground.
I left know how brief this would be
and tomorrow, home, but tonight endless
is a name found in a line at the edge,
where the water meets the sky. Eternity comes
like the moonlight and the waves,
calling without a question,
it tugs at the unclear sadness and takes away
what doesn’t last forever: the clouds and shaky waves.
----
Adrian’s Sonnet When We Were Tired
Today, I dragged Adrian out of bed,
hair-wild and short of breath. It is too late
to stay the same. I took him by the heart
and pulled him across town, to work, to speak
my conversations. My cold lungs were thick
and heavy to push. I shook him awake
splashed water in his face, but his whole world
was this same line: let me go back. Let me
shelter and hide. The sun flamed with the roar
that people made outside and in. You know
the days sadness sticks so hard to our hands
that what we hold dear, we break a little.
I’m sorry, love. What violence we do
to ourselves, when what we most want is peace.
----
Autoevaluation
The truth is, Adrian, I am melodramatic
falling on the floor tired, breathing carpet
and wondering about the consequences
if I actually fell asleep, what words
they’d siphon from my absence. Sudden.
Unprecedented. Striking. I am a believer
in the hard truths of today. A dream is broken
and naive; the heart has barely changed size
since I first left you, yet buildings burst forth
all around like fireworks and the stars we shot for
disappear in the smoke. I am forgetful:
meanings like love and hope and diligence
slip through me like a sieve and I search
to be filled, search into the rich darkness
where dreams gain color. Here I lay, waiting
on that old energy of youth. I am waiting
flat on the ground where you find me
every time the weight of time presses down.
The games we used to play, I play them still,
but tomorrow comes quicker, the joy fades faster.
