At the No-Tell Motel

It started and it ended
At the no-tell … Motel

You were late
And I was drunk
And we were both
Again … Yet again

You were married to your job
And probably to someone else
But we talked about your work
And how your boss was such a jerk

And how to deal with clients
Who were slow-pay … No-pay

And while we took our customary showers
We joked about all the DNA
On the top sheet and the floor

And with all that contamination how
They’d never be able to identify ours

Unless it was a TV show

We tried to recreate our own Crime Scene
But the lust … Was dust

We were thinking of somewhere else
Afterwards - We lay there

Imagining the ticks
Of a digital clock

Waiting to see
Who would suggest
The early checkout

To make a simple statue

The sculptor says:

Consider the subject matter
Prepare sketches
From every angle

Surprise yourself with its geography
Ride imaginary camels
Across the desert of its flanks
The caverns of its flaring nostrils
The mountains of its shoulders
The rivers of its mane

Listen so carefully
That you can hear the sound of each hoof placed
The before, the during and the after of its pace

Feel
The thud of mud
The recoil of a thousand pounds
Vibrating through soil
To engage the soles of your own feet

Now take a mallet
A chisel and a block of stone

And simply
Chip away
The parts
That are not horse

Message in a bottle

On my
Deserted island
I walk along the largely
Unlettered shore

I wrote poems
Stuffed them into bottles
Sometimes

The messages at first
Were
Please send help
Get me off this place
I’m not where I should be

But the tides
Returned
These cries

Later they were conversational
Talking about the weather
And sunsets

And the tides
Sent these back too

More recently
They contain
Smiling advice
Kind comfort

I influence
The tone

The tides
Decide
The course of correspondence

Tea Session with Depression

One lump or two
I ask
Assuming that I am
“Mother”

Depression is indifferent
And so I merely leave the bowl
And spoon
Within reach
In case it has a change of heart

In past visits
Treated with contempt
In my vain attempt
To cast it off

I had always considered it to be coarse
Unrefined
Somehow brutish
Now that we are face to face
It seems quite shy

I’m reaching for compassion
For this unfashionable defense
This wartime response
Who stares
Like a shell-shocked veteran
Lost in peacetime

I try to remember
That it is only trying to help
Old coping
Broken
As a talking doll with a knotted string
Answering questions
That haven’t been asked

That’s why I’m pouring
Gentle tea
For both of us

A Menagerie Friend

You were my familiar
A strange and cat-like companion
Courteous enough
And so not fully feline
With indifference

I had the sense
On our first meeting
To keep you secret-secret
...Secret

I did not want anyone
To talk me out of hearing
Your imagined laughter

I did not want anyone
To explain away your whispers
As merely breezes

...Or your smile
As a wishful thought

I did not want to question
Your wise insight
Your counsel which was
So often
The same as mine

When did you fade
...Where went the days
That somehow passed without you

...They escaped
Like pets
At incautious doors