oh joe joe
old joe
he polished the floor
with a bumper
for he was leaded
from too much exposure
in his molten past
the floor of the lab shone
with his reminiscences
oh boy he’d been a boy alright
in his time and all that
was in the past
leaded now and gasping
rasping at his fate
but it sold
the lead and the gold
on many sarcophagi halted
for it was a bumper crop
of lives expended
it never ended
and i predict it never will
but what a shine they put on it
farther
i named the stream father
for he floated my first leaf boat
built my potential with its journey
over the falls we went
singing foam
whistling up a rainbow
days that float in my mind’s eye
as we walked home
for seventy years
the boat’s caulking has held
replying to a poet’s bleat
spare me the despair
i have enough of my own
how full can emptiness be
tell me ~ go on tell me
what works eventually
when all has been tried and failed
when the dam on time’s river is failing
for what word can plug despair
before a deluge of death-bed poems
fills the piss pot
i’m listening now
alright
come on
forever’s eve
… then in careful words
a thought is laid down for ever
and in my mind never no more isn’t
so
wrap me in your autumn words
and i will spring you a surprise
just like i did in the olden days
a mother and son selfie
suddenly
there is beauty beyond
being beautiful
together is teetering
upon time’s tearing
of their tethering apart
which is the beautiful part
of today forging tomorrow’s
broken heart
