Celebrations
Right Accessory
Sometimes you just need the right accessory, she said & I said I know, sometimes it takes me an hour to pick the right head & she just ignored me.
Right Practice
It’s hard to say the right words without practice, I said & she whispered in my ear, Say them as many times as you like & we practiced late into the night.
Regular Hours
wondering if Day of the Dead is nine to five like all the other dead days he can remember
Relative Worries
I’m not worried about ghosts in general, she said. Just the ones that are related to me.
Real Reason
There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s cooking & say it was good.
Real Limit
How many people can you love before it’s too much? she said & I said I didn’t think there was any real limit as long as you didn’t care if they loved you back.
Quiet Spaces
We had gone far enough together to listen easily in the quiet spaces.
Quiet Prayer
As long as the sun shall rise goes the old lovers vow. But we are children of a scientific age & have no time for poetry. Still, I offer a quiet prayer of thanks for the sunlight each time I see your face.
Purple Madonna
One time on Hollywood Boulevard I saw a young girl with a baby. It was a crisp winter morning & her hair shone dark purple in the sun. She was panhandling outside the Holiday Inn & the door clerk came out & told her to be on her way & I wondered if anyone would recognize the Christ child if they happened to meet. I remember thinking it’s not like there are any published pictures & purple seemed like a good color for a Madonna so I gave her a dollar just in case.
Possible Love
She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible,
so he didn’t have a chance to hide & mess it up &
while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not
even imagine the world without her there.
Overdressed
I’m feeling overdressed, she said & he held her close & said as far as he was concerned she was always that way & her eyes glowed softly in the light of his desire
No More Secret
I will always remember the day
the sun shone dark on your hair
& I forgot where we were
& kissed you lightly
on the nose & suddenly
there was no more secret.
No Words
I read once that the
ancient Egyptians had
fifty words for sand
& the Inuit had a
hundred words for snow.
I wish I had
a thousand words
for love,
but all that comes
to mind is the way
you move against me
while you sleep
& there are
no words for that.
No Difference
There was a boy with skin
as dark as the earth
& a girl with
eyes as blue as the deep
& they loved
each other so well
that people could
not tell
them apart,
for in their hearts,
there was
no difference
between them.
No Danger
Has made peace with this monster
so there’s no danger unless you
wear a perfume that smells like raw meat.
Night Eyes
at dark when all the eyes come out
Night Sailor
Sails about all night. It explains why I look like hell in the morning, she said.
Night Demons
When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work
& it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing
& the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.
Mr. Right
He loved her for almost
everything she was
& she decided that
was enough to let him stay
for a very long time.
Mirror Image
My sister read somewhere once
that if you look into your own eyes
long enough in a mirror
you change into the Devil
& it took her almost thirty years,
but she finally did it.