ERATO

There’s nothing quite like waking up inside
a suite instead of an arbor. Nice view.
I never know if this is your room or
mine. We can blame the champagne if you like.
But I knew we would wind these sheets when I
blew on your dice, & you dropped them as if
scalded. Even the pit boss half-smiled.
Even I half-smiled when you winced, & claimed
you’d rather have me than luck. Hopelessly
cute. I can’t give you anything but love,
baby. Sometimes, not even that. It’s late.
Phoebus & his chariot, & all that.
What time is check-out? No, I really can’t.  
You’re sweet, but I have a flight to catch.
Where the hell is my other sandal? What?
Oh… sure. You’re welcome. Whatever, that’s what
I do. It’s not such a big deal, you don’t
have to go all dewy-eyed like that.
No, stay in bed. Order breakfast. I’m off.
Don’t go changin’… Ha! I know. As if
you could. Text me sometime. I like to get
texts. Don’t look so sad. Do you think this
is the only hotel room in the world?
Besides, Lenny Cohen’s a hundred floors
above, & I promised I’d ride with him
to the airport.  So keep the faith, baby.
I’ll leave the Do Not Disturb sign in place.
What? Really? Okay, okay…  but try not
to smear my lipstick. What? No, I meant it.
How could I lie, after all this time?



THE ONE WHO

The veil drops, like a dime, the other shoe,
a high heel no doubt, dropped from on high.
In this redoubt of doubt, this fortress
of solicitude, you reach out to grasp
a hand & clasp your fingers round a cloud.
Partly sunny, but still. The sun never
forgets a face, only what that face meant,
once. The light, diffuse. Did I say veil?
I meant mask. The eyes, a dead giveaway.
The question goes unasked. I won’t say no,
how could I? Time will give you the reasons.
How tender becomes tinder, & tinder
tender, & how both collapse into take.
How something sighs, extends, & strokes opaque.

ET IN ARCADE EGO

I wake up every morning in tilt, bruised
from ball & bumper, rubbing aching wrists.
I brush my teeth by backglass, & wonder
how one more game can possibly still thrill.
I break another dollar just to hear
its divided self collide in pocket,
clamoring to disappear. Will this be
a two player or a single? George’s
face never looks anywhere but left.
Somewhere in the distance is a free game,
an extra ball, Shoot Again! Well, why not.
It’s only gravity. Everyone must
feel it. Into the V that’s never closed
a steely heaviness rockets, helpless.



VERY SUPERSTITIOUS

Dissolve: salt of days on a hollow tongue.
Waitress knocks over the shaker & fails
to throw a blind pinch over her shoulder.
Doesn’t know, doesn’t care. You knock on wood
& find plastic. You still avoid a hat
on a bed, but only because you have
a hat to go awry, a bed that longs
for it. All thinking magical, & just
as dissolved & hollow as the echo
of strange spices, the memory of taste.
To describe it is somehow to betray,
a jinx. Better to play a sort of Sphinx,
whispering secrets too softly to hear.
Better sorry than safe. Pass the pepper.



INVISIBLY YOURS

Unwrap the bandages. What do you see?
He’s all eaten away. Meddling fools;
all you wanted was to be left alone.
This is the price of being interesting:
everyone looks, no one sees. Vanity
makes a little bonfire in your soul
that paints the faces red & warms nothing.
Someone says the phrase good looking, & all
you can do is sneeze. A benediction,
good look, good luck. Look is less than nothing,
more then everything, an eye for an eye
that blinds beholder & beheld alike
so they may see. So they may see. So they
may see. You see? Take off your dark glasses.
Transparent retinas refract no gazes; 
only the visible is mystery.