I'll look for him
The park dweller
When our way of life
Is at an end

When all the stored
Material possessions
Don't mean anything

Just food and water
Shelter too
That will be all that matters

There was never much here
For us on this earth
We seemed out of time
Out of place
Wandering without desire

We had the sunrise
And the sunsets
The hours walking
And lounging about

He had a check
I think he received
For food

I think he is
A Vietnam veteran

Like me he enjoyed reading

And so we sat at the park
And ate red grapes

And watched the various
Mushroom clouds
As the atomic bombs
Struck downtown Los Angeles

"So I guess this is the end,"
I said

"Oh well," he said
"It was nice while it lasted"

I agreed

If you asked me before,
I'd swear that love was
not for me
that a feeling
so soft did
not exist within
me
and that holding a gaze
was only for show

I've read a lot of books now,
and I've had a lot of
lovers-
and I've asked fortune
tellers for my
feelings I don't know,
sleeping so stilly within me

-would not wake
to the slightest or the sharpest
touch of a hand, and I've had
both-

I've had
10,000 miles and
too much coffee.
Pursuing and
withdrawing.

And after all this time
in the self's purgatory
I find you
and you dig into
my skin and pull
the tenderness out
of me like picking flowers
from the quietest
of meadows

I've seen a lot of things
and dreamed a lot of dreams
and finally after seeking,
you pluck and uncover me.

I wanna stop wondering what if '
I wanna start knowing what is'


-second chance