Poem: Homeless and Penniless

 

Homeless and Penniless

 

words.  they are Diogenes' lantern

looking for one honest ear.

they are fugitive:  grief-weakened fragments of

of a dismantled hearth

strewn across hungry days,

lost in uncertain quest.

 

one sentence could take months,

only to get thieved by a cave swallow.

twisted into a long, knotted nest

of mud-and-twig under an overpass.

 

a single word can be  

a murmurous, mellifluous sitar of touch

which nestles for a mere moment 

to strum a lover's nape.

 

but!

--to sail on skis of contrails,

above birds-of-paradise that nod to kiss in breeze,

if that might be what it takes

for a drunk to look up from a jail cell of drinks ... 

and yet no no no 

all that means nothing.

the soul scrabbles after unchained moments,

unsullied newborn joys,

instantaneous togethery-nesses.

too low to be noticed.  and yet so high

above the truth of the fall.

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10/14/24

7/20/24

This is another poem where I really don't know what I am talking about