Forget-me-not

I've lost track of time
without you
not in the pleasant infinity
of a potential us
but the vacant reality
of shrugged smiles
gestures aimed at placating
the ever-present crush
of not you

It's not so bad now
only I can't remember
if it's been one year
or five
if tomorrow marks some
milestone turned millstone
that I'll be dragging
with a dumb grin
past a need for time

Holiday Inn my head

It was one of those non-sequtius gestures
one of those whys
whose answer couldn't possibly
be worthwhile

A key-card for a hotel room
long since rendered inert
stranded on a residential rock
offering only a slogan

Stay Inspired
as if all inspiration took
was a reminder
a nudging from some great unknown

Country Modern

Joe crow
sitting on a Subaru
more common than a fence post
in this part of town
where temporary living arrangements
are all the rage
and you don't need fences
to keep in a culture
that just wants to be free

Joe crow
staring me down
like I'm the one who doesn't belong
and maybe he's right
I'm more a fence post kind of guy
pretending these cars
are immovable objects
waiting for their crows
for the past to catch up

Itsy Bitsy

When it rains like this

I'm left wondering

where all the clouds came from

puddles picked up elsewhere

and deposited on my shoes

Cosmic displacement

of such minor proportions

I have only to wait for the sun
to lift the world again
and take it where it will

Stranger than Fiction

We pulled into a bank of fog
and sat there
staring out
staring at whatever world
we thought we wanted
staring at the infinite possibilities
dried up now
in the bucket seat between you and me

Maybe I'm nostalgic
or pathetic
or a harmonious composition of the two
tragic
because the story will end with my death
even if we had gotten hitched
the story will end
and the fog we never braved
will linger there
forcing fancy
onto what might have been