My comfort zone
Is Isolation
On the perimeter
Of success and failure
Fighting off constant lust
Not giving in totally
Being selective
Choosing only able prey
I am the shark in friendly waters
I won’t come for you unless you provoke
I’m known as the predator
Leave me be unless tragic is your heart

Yesterday
Confessed to my beautiful wife
of 24 years
That I am a poet

She had no idea
Was blown away
Told her how it came to be
And read her a few examples of my madness

It felt good to tell her
I was living a lie
Now she knows the real truth
From her 61 year old dog

I know, I know, 61?
It’s true
Young at heart, still got my mojo
But racing fast against the skyway

The day has been erased
Washed and hung out to dry
The only thing left
is us

So good night luv
Sweet dreams
See you in the morning
Maybe a spoon or two before dawn

The solitude that is mine now, is bittersweet.
As the day progresses into evening, imagine the sound of your ring on
my phone.
knowing that if it comes, I am set up for another deception,
another lie,
another empty promise.

At least the silence is safe, I can rest.
Resting in my own space, I will not feel the sting of another
disappointment.
Here I can imagine that you miss me,
that you think fondly of me.
That you wonder what I am doing at this very moment.
That I have some power.

The harsh words that set this in motion, will fall away, as time will
allow.
In the space we created by arguing, we have time to rest.
Do you also know that in this rest,
I am allowing my love for you to stay, it is valid…
or slip quietly away, and I will reluctantly begin to move on
Whatever the outcome, I will accept.

Yes, bittersweet, knowing what my heart holds for you,
and the lonliness I will feel at either outcome.
You may show at my door, without a word of apology for me, and I will
take you in.
knowing the futility
You may allow the space to grow,
to see who will fall first to temptation.
You do not know my heart has forbidden it to be me.
If this is the cruel game we will play, so be it.

either way… I lose

No straight line
To our love
Bumps and bruises
Welts to the heart

Longing and character
Fill our cups
Sly smiles and afterthoughts
Always bubbling over

I didn’t choose you
Nor you me
It just happened
Do the math, you’ll see

In Kathmandu
Rain falls like Shiva’s tears
Great darkened clouds
Come roiling onto jagged peaks
Above the valley
Thunder echoes
Warm rain
Lightning scatters monkeys
Who take shelter in the wooden eves above a temple
As umbrellas blossom in the marketplace below.
Monsoon.