Just One More Poem

Just one poem

Give me just one poem today

Before it’s dark, let me externalize just one part of me in this way

Allow me this bit of earth, of life,

This gift of giving

Birth

To the worth I feel teeming inside

And I will let you go,

And sleep tonight

Just one line

Let me have one line of art today

Something still arced and complete, though not steeped in perfect rhyme

That wreaks of youth, trouble, journey and a climb,

a well-constructed piece ending in the end,

That I perform now

Just show me how

To begin

—a breath, a bow—

And I will know the world at peace

Just one look

Allow me just one little wink

A drive-by crime

A chink in our armor, a tiny Achilles’ nook

That could dismantle the very texture of our time

An olive branch with the devil’s thorns

Just give me, let me, prick me dry

I am just born

And already impatiently aching to be torn

I know the wine takes over

I know I can’t hold my lover

I am a child beneath the bedtime covers,

I know I know I know but

Just one more love

Once more around the sun

Let the skies open and welcome this dumbo dove

Just one more dream

Come what may, I swear

I’ll ride that typhoon

Into the pains of yesteryear

So just one poem

Please

A gift of me

Just one, little, honest seed

And though I weep it waters dreams

And I will rest

Finally