Three Poems
Sunset In Arkansas
I’m missing something.
I’m searching through the backroads of
Arkansas.
A once nowhere place now
Somewhere
I can’t shake
From the mind.
What was it
Left behind?
Was it the
Hope of
Keeping you close
That left me blind?
To travel miles and miles
Just to hear, on any given day,
Your laughter in my ear
You
Who turned my heart to
Honest substance.
How wonderful it was to live life
When I had a
Question
And you’d always have
An answer.
I have a question
Now.
With no answer,
Nowhere.
For it was you who gifted it
To me.
That line of
The sunset of Arkansas
Being the saddest thing
And all that.
I search for it
Desperate, wishing
It could be so easy
To call and ask.
But, instead,
I remember us driving through
Arkansas and not thinking
Anything sad at all
Because there was the music
And the orange horizon
And it could have been sunrise or
Sundown
And all would be well.
It’s simple, I keep it that way.
We chose our own roads.
Your’s on the journey
To find God
And I looked,
In the next greyhound bus.
This is how it goes.
Simple.
We chose our devotions, and
I went flying since
Finding It couldn’t be you.
Now all I’ve got are these backroad words
But what good is a half-formed sentence?
Something
Like an exclamation
Of: “Oh my god
You have no idea how sad it is!”
How sad it is.
On the constant
I see the sun in Arkansas.
Trailing the backroads,
Shining down on something useless.
Oh my God.
I miss you so much.
New Jewelry
There they lay.
Gleaming
Gun-Metal Tree,
Sterling Hammer, and
Diamond Basketball.
Ash contained
In silver,
Once blood
Under soft skin;
And the hearts, well,
They’ve retired from that plight.
When I finish crying,
Of course,
I am young. I wonder:
What shape will I fit?
What would most suit
The eyes of loved ones
To wear over their chest?
If I dissolve myself,
While my heart is still pumping,
Perhaps I can thin the bones down
As to not freak
Whoever's fingers
Clutch the plastic full of gray.
I’ll do it for you,
Anything.
But could I ask for diamonds?
Gold or amethyst?
So I may be worthy of your neck.
So I may see
Barcelona or Montreal,
Or hear music,
The sweetest music not sung
Just yet.
Take me dancing.
Let me listen in
On The Secret I never knew then.
Introduce me to friends
Ahead of my time
Then, back to the ocean
Who needs no reintroduction.
No matter.
Put me in a form
Of your own choosing
To flatter personal senses.
I don’t care much for crosses
Yet do what you must.
I love you and you are happy
To wear, there,
Some trace of beauty.
A Party Of The People I Love
I want to sit back
At a party with all the people I love
And watch them swim,
Splashing over
Heartbreak and Serious Conversation;
Maybe there will be wine,
Maybe that and the scene
(Whose children are these?)
Eases me
To recline.
It's the most beautiful film.
They don't wonder where their audience lay,
They simply wash water gently along
This summer day that could be
A thousand other things
But is this
Light Sunday in May.
Dogs drink from sprinkler,
The teenagers out for a walk,
The radio plays our favorite song.
Someone comes up,
“Are you drunk?”
But I don’t drink any longer.
I only smile
Into the eyes of a new friend and
Wonder intently of an old one.
Somewhere down the line,
This script was put to paper.
I read it and said yes
God-directed, co-written
We insert:
She sits back
Watching
A party of the people she loves.
Cut to black.
Cover image: open road. Sourced from Pinterest.