(Created Apr. 18, 2004 at 8:43 PM)
Today's Basic Idea:" First in ten years "

(Spontaneously written just now, so don't think this is remotely a final poem. Just had to write something. I haven't written poetry in ten years. I have never been more than a beginner, so don't expect greatness. :) )

(For Jeff)

The last
-------------

The last
time we spoke, you were at seminary
almost a priest.
Ten years later
E-mail announces
"sad news"
Your life, in a few bytes.

I called you a muse once
if boys can be muses for girls.
Less then half your final age
we traded clumsy words on scraps and staff paper and
You plucked strings with
hands chapped by gasoline and winter.
Our changing skins, strangely straining,
were dismissed.
Catholic.
You held on to that church
that bound you tighter in return.

Saint Paul pulled you apart
Hung you with towels in bathrooms
burned your arms with cigarette lighters -
fun at the loony bin, you said.

The last I heard
you married
free from hospitals and churches
of anguish
I thought.

The last time we spoke
(we never really think it is the last time
or else we would not let it be)
we argued life and Choices
you found unforgivable
religiously speaking.
I could not forgive you
for needing forgiveness,
from that damn church
that killed you
buried your once hairless shining body
and sad sky eyes

You shouted Milton or Dante
as we walked through the frozen woods
the dogs running away from us
hot on the trail of something good under the snow

We ran between doorways in Toronto
our eyelids and noses slowly freezing shut.

The last letters you sent
told me to guard myself
To not fall
into the pull of salty sin
into love

but the smell of skin was always
my incense.
you believed
the Church of the body
betrayed you
but pagans do not know your regret
your church
and its loathing of our natural
bodies
dark earth
teenage lust
and this life.

I blame you -
you popes and Paul and pundits.
There is no church or politics or argument
that should keep friends and poets silent.

I will never know who had the last word
but deep in the dark earth
you have the final
silence.


*********
***** 3 voices speaking out
- 2004-04-18 22:04:59
well, garsh. I didn't expect THAT. It needs lotsa work. And as you said, flattery will get you everywhere. ;-)
-------------------------------
Please support and adore Air America Radio!
Andrea

Eating: boca burgers w/ rice cheese
Watching: PBS
Reading: nothing for fun, lots for grad school
Feeling:




*HUGS* TOTAL! give moonferret more *HUGS*
Get hugs of your own