More Words

I met my wife at a party when I drank too much

My son is married and tells me we don't talk enough

It's so predictable, yesterday my dream was of you

Beyond the ridge on the left, the sun had left the sky

Between the trees and pond

you put your hand in mine

Said, “Time has bridled us both but I remember you, too”

Sleep

I hold your picture in my mind
It makes me warm when I'm cold
It gets me up, it makes me walk
It makes me question what I'm told

Somewhere in a foggy atlas
Lookout mountain, lookout sea
First life takes time, then time takes life
Now the next move's up to me

Because the pillow that I dream on
Leads to some fantastic glory
It's a threshold of a world
I can't ignore

My First Affair With That Older Woman

when I look back now
at the abuse I took from
her
I feel shame that I was so
innocent,
but I must say
she did match me drink for
drink,
and I realized that her life
her feelings for things
had been ruined
along the way
and that I was no more than a
temporary
companion;
she was ....... older
and mortally hurt by the past
and the present;
she treated me badly:
desertion,
other men;
she brought me immense
pain,
continually;
she lied;
there was desertion,

other men,

yet we had our moments; and
our little soap opera ended
with her in a coma
in the hospital,
and I sat at her bed
for hours
talking to her,
and then she opened her eyes
and saw me:
"I knew it would be you,"
she said.
then she closed her
eyes.

the next day she was
dead.

I drank alone
for two years
after that.

-CB