Smile

Dogs do not smile

At pictures of other dogs

Nor plants at images of plants

We in the sea

See something sublime and infantile

In the passing of fish

That show teeth like ours

As we swim continuously toward

Irrelevance 

City of Ghosts

The church bell rings hollow and loud

Across the city streets

A gust of wind comes up to hug

Anyone it meets

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

I knew the avenues by name

The signs swing in gaslight

Holmes and Watson cast their shadows

Deep into the night

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

Trees and spires pierce the sky

Underneath the crescent moon

Specters climbing to the stars

Will find each other soon

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

Absence of Color

In the winter

When the raw emotions

Stand out in the cold

Will you still love me knowing

That you are now alone

You came to me

When breath was sweet

And every image danced

Colors were illusions then

For you always in black

Stand your ground

And eat the snow

Till purity seeps in

No you will never freeze until

You have all that you lack

Dreams and bones

Were all we had

Even as our time seemed full

There is no wool can keep you warm

Till feeling reaches home

Sorrow

No elegance ever there was

Like sorrow

Balances the world upon each shoulder

Justified and dignified

With sorrow

Holds me as an arrow

Flying upstream through the marrow

But hold on to tomorrow

You will be there

With sorrow

Sweet of sound and pure of taste

Perfume of life and afterlife

That is the truth,

The certainty

Of sorrow

Gull

Honing this tool

In the waves, in the tide

Is a cause flying straight

Through the wind

To the soul where the world

Flies away at a word

Makes me whole, takes me down,

From the birds