Nothing

There are a lot of blank spaces

as I look back

but

         blanks

                      are what I'm used to--

blanks

               are what we got a lot of

                                                     back then.

The story

                 has been filled in,

                                            drawn on,

                                                              made up

                                                                                as I went along

because fiction

             is better than

                                                     nothing.

In a parallel universe,
children don't go hungry
and their parents don't run away
into themselves
into the bottom
of a glass
that shatters all around them
leaving them bleeding
and
alone.

Shadows

Still lurking in the shadows after all these years
like a faded old film
making barely discernible projections
in a darkened corner.

I remained unenlightened.

Vintage Vision

We reach for the retro
for a time--did it exist?--
that we hunger to be a part of.

We want to better understand ourselves.
Are we so fundamentally different from each other?
Would we have been friends?

We want to understand *you*,
the unmet enigma
staring at something
off in the unseeable distance
from out of an old photograph.

After decades of walking through life’s gardens,

discovering the intoxicating textures and colors

together

driving leisurely on roads newly-discovered,

sharing our lives,

I never want to lose the taste of it--

of intense new flavors,

like being served exotic food

by someone who can’t help but

love you

on a warm, spring day.

The quiet one
who can't
have fun,
she sits
in the corner
like Little Jack Horner--
like the three little kittens--
there is no pie

His eyes sparkle

like new snow on a moon-lit night,

fiery jewels in a now-weathered face.

His warm complex smile draws me in,

well-mixed as it is with a sadness

indistinguishable from the laughter

as much as sweet cream is indistinguishable

from the bitter coffee it flavors.