Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label florida. Show all posts

06 January 2012

i didn't love because it didn't love


we hardly even knew each other
and that was the glue
      stuck us together
kept us on the ground
while the peaches are in season
the trees just in reach
there’s little left to do
            but teach

i won’t let anyone hurt the pearl
the laudanum
      the mild form of the wild world
none of us
and none of this
      will make amends
let’s not be friends
   let’s not be trite
did you hear the truth song
                                the one by the giant

   ninety three
the more fool   i
it’s an estimate
            of what it’ll be
what you’ll see
in the land of cotton
where old times are
      all but forgotten
palm trees and sunshine
the basis of every story
from the gulf
      but smaller   seven
left to fend for himself
the aristocrat
            the girl

it’s easy to tell the stories
if you don’t let the truth
get in the way
make it a blue dress
make it so there’s
no need to confess
so there’s nothing to regret
      on the shore

in eighty four
      at seventeen
said i didn’t love
because it didn’t love
   in the art class
elaine floyd
   said
what
      said
   how
she was a hippie then
but she’s
      a hypocrite
now




07 July 2011

in my dream i am taller and you are more attentive


in los angeles
the bright sun finds arms
and legs
but not  eyes
there is no squinting
in los angeles

my hat    is straw
white straw with a navy band
it is easy to spot
on someone so tall
an angeleno in a seersucker suit
with   white shoes
nineteen fifty two

back from my korean vacation
where i killed
with guns and sometimes      knives
i loved their wives
in the name of democracy
and beach front motel property
in florida
which is where i used to be from
before korea
grew taller
and moved
to los angeles

and my sweet southern drawl
my two and a half syllables to say ‘y’all’
hero to one
hero to all
never to fail
never to fall




you stare at me now
the way
i used to stare at you
in that northern florida panhandle
dirt farmer sun
before you went back
to wales
and i went back
to jail
where they had me sign up
for the korean vacation
to grow taller
and end up
here
           with you
euro pale white turned
    tan brown
pretty hair hanging down
staring straight back at me

in my dream   
                  i am taller
       and you are more attentive