evening walk

We’re watching leaves fall into the water.
I smile, thinking lifestyle has won over nature:
We’re wrapped and warm in scarves and each other,
Those leaves should’ve died by now.

The moon looms over Ikea. I see you
New in the blue light of all we won’t have
The cradles and kids toys, discarded for love;
The rooms where the cats of our conscience prowl.

We walk home together as the image fades,
Through the fragile beams stars and streetlights have made,
A sign says: The Fire Brigade Office has moved.
Beneath we read: Burn, fuckers –you’re screwed!
You ask if it’s wrong that you adore this.
So close, we kiss. My reply? Mmm. Mmm. No.
Yes.

between the sheets

Lovers, sweetly sleeping between the sheets,
Be warm, open; curled up like well-loved books
But separate as strangers on shadowed streets.
Exchange for honest glances reverent looks,
Remember what desire love completes:
The search for knowledge, facts outside of books.
Be proud, precise! Recite: eyes, lips, heart, hand,
Hands, hearts! Eyes, minds, mouths! Meet. And understand.

Learners, discreetly sleeping between the stacks,
Be calm, reflective; like windows behind blinds,
Which, through those small smudges, scratches & cracks,
Show us the world. Call: Seek, y’all! All shall find.
Remember why we become scheisters, quacks,
Spooks, quirks? To learn the limits of our minds,
To know the shapes of others in the night
To see our sleep eclipsed by a lifelong light.