Healer Of Desperate Souls

--for Eleni 

Of that precious 

Small pocket of air 

You carry with you 

Like a talisman against all 

The ills of the world 

That descend upon us 

Everywhere, tell me again 

And again how it is 

Everything it touches 

Dispels untold depression 

And despair! 

 

 

 

So Far, So Good

Imagine 

Beyond this growing 

Poverty of words nothing 

But silence and you trying 

 

To explain how 

You came so close 

To untying your tongue 

Again and again.

 

Hope Dies Last (Seize The Day)

Easy does it, hombre— 

Having never lived 

 

Fully, clearly you could still 

Die just as easily, say 

 

Tomorrow, if not today. 

 

 

 

Minor Ukrainian Rhapsody, March 21, 2022

a pity 

 

you’re not here 

to witness, Doc— 

 

you see not so 

 

much depends 

upon that fire- 

 

baked engine red 

harrow now caked 

 

with coats of maculate 

brown flaking rust beside 

 

a sky-blue pond in which reflected 

puffs of dirty gunmetal grey

 

clouds scud by and no white 

chickens in sight.

 

Perambulatory Archilochos

To each his own, 

Under blossoming 

 

Dogwood and oak, one 

Person at once poet 

 

And mercenary, out 

Walking through ragged 

 

Paper thin fragments 

Of a cutting mind, still 

 

Trying to get it all 

Together, one fragile 

 

Piece at a time.