poems                      endlessnightfall.com

           POEMS     1
                       (See Poems 2 and 3 below)
.............................................
In A Coffee Shop
late afternoon, Midsummer
City Night   (NYC)
hopping  toad in     -haiku
autumn rain     -haiku
Midsummer's Night
At Paul And Carol's House
On The River
Christmas  Death

winter moon   -haiku
Willoughby graveyard      -haiku   
On The Backyard Porch
soaking in   -haiku
Florida (Elegy)
Tyger Tyger
"Is it just a cruel joke," she says   -haiku
(whisper this)  My  Cousin Shirley
Lady Night Song
winter moon's   -haiku
New York City
Kitchen Floor (NYC)
In The Dark Night  (2 versions)                                                                       
florida: hill-country   -haiku   
........................................................................................
                                                                               

                                                                                                       
          In A Coffee Shop                                                             
                                                                                                           
As she ran quickly past,                                                             
In a starched blue uniform                                                     
Under the mirrored electric lights,                                       
The plump and sturdy waitress                                                 

Put down her cigarette,                                                           
But in a rush going by,                                                             
In haste;                                                                                           
                                                                                                               
It nearly rolled off,                                                                     
And lies against the glassy                                                     
Ashtray, propped,                                                                       
As if it were an answer,                                                                 

The cigarette,                                                                                       
                                                                                                             
The lush and curly smoke                                                                 
That rises from the years                                                               
Above my empty cup.                                                                       
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                 
..................................................................


                   ...late afternoon, Midsummer


     -ducks, dipping a bath, preening feathers...
-splashes out of the silent water, a carp...
     -watersnake, ripples among the roots...
-reflected in the river shallows, the moon...


................................................................................
             

      City Night      (NYC)
                               -whisper this
 



I listen to the night, the roar,
With the angry shouts
        From the ventilation shaft,
And the clink of pots,
        While a kitchen light shines in
Through the darkness, and the clock
        Ticks beside the bed.



   I can hear the cries of love -
In the stifling heat -
        From the silent lovers, locked
In the darkened rooms,
        Like this room, where you and I
All alone together, wait
        For the night to pass.

                    2.



  I am listening to your breathing
In the roaring dark.
        Are you listening also?
From the water tap
        Do you hear the water drops
Falling in the pool they make?
        Do you hear your heart?

        For a while the room is ours,
And the warmth is ours,
        For as long as we care to,
And the roaring night -
        Where we must go sometimes,
Where we must go sometimes
        Though we do not want to.


.............................................................................



hopping toad in
my headlights

midnight on a
rainy road


.................................................................................




                       autumn rain
                                  last petunia's
                                             lonliness

....................................................................................

                Midsummer's Night

                              ...night and silence


Midsummer's night, the woods are like a dream,
I wander by the river in the moonlight,
Mosquitoes buzz around my old straw hat,
The air perfumed with blossoms of a vine,

I trip over a root across the path,
A bird cries out from deep among the leaves,
The night is still, I glance up at the stars,
A fish leaps, in the water, with a splash.

                           

..........................................................................................

                                At Paul and Carol's House

We laughed and talked all night
In the yellow-lighted kitchen
With bugs smacking the screen,
The hallway to the sunporch dark
But squares of light from the passing cars
Now and then on the barber's house next door;
The still hands of the clock
And two empty bottles of beer;
We laughed and talked all night,
Until she came in,
Squinting, but not mad.

She liked to watch the  rain come on
From the sunporch       black with lightning,
The droplets pattering from the overhang
While we two stayed in the kitchen
Listening to it roar outside the screen,
And then maybe went out to see
Where she was.  I watched her sitting there
A drop of rain       her feet up on the sill
Like I did too, when I was a child:
I watched her so, but what can we know?
(And tomorrow will soon be years ago.)


And then September, the bright afternoon:
A line of tiny kids let out from school
Their legs walking too fast, but hand in hand,
In twos or threes or by themselves,
With little skirts and cartooned lunchboxes,
Their solemn eyes and faces all aglow:
A little crowd
They crossed the mainstreet when the lady said,
Not thinking of tomorrow.


That night when we were walking
By the porches under the moon
Kids were out in the street;
Or in the living room in front of their TV
Looking at eternity
Within the flickering light.


The house was old he rented
With flowered wallpaper we had to paint,
An old garage with a trellis of grapes,
And an empty downstairs store
That creaked at night
When I lay on the narrow cot
Too late for the lights to pass
And laughing in my sleep;
It never did get dark; and yet

When I got up they both had gone to work.            



........................................................................................
                   On The River


A small dock
on the river,
hot sunlight
with the odor
of tar;   when
I jumped in

I watched my
slender body
waver in
the green
transparent water
filled with light.


..............................................................................................

Christmas Death


I saw this.  I saw this.
We were talking about his earache.
He was sitting all by himself at the vinyl
Kitchen table, the snow falling into the dark
Outside my window above the TV store.
I remember I glimpsed a startled goblin's face
Staring at me from the steamed-up window pane
When I glanced out into the Christmas dark.
He was not the kind of a man you told what to do.
He was sitting all alone at the table, there,
(The vinyl kitchen table where I write)
The room electric-lighted in the dark.

"Why had they driven up North in this blizzard?
I'd told him I'd rather they didn't come!
I'd shouted into the phone!
Why hadn't he gone to a doctor?
What if it went to his brain?
Two weeks - ...with a fever - two weeks!?"...

He got a funny smile, as if drunken,
"Maybe I ought to go and see a doctor,"...
And he gazed up into my eyes...

A voice from outside me shouted into my ear:
"HE'S GOING TO DIE!"

And then, surprised, recovering, I said:
"You'll be OK.  You just keep getting sick
All the time, over and over - like me!"

His face seemed to lose expression,
And he lowered his eyes...

...I write in the room at night, remembering:
He was sitting all alone at the table,
This vinyl kitchen table where I write,
The room electric-lighted in the dark.

................................................................................................