romance

“romance”

My newborn son

                Laying on my wife, both of them fast asleep

My 3 year old little girl wakes up from a dead sleep

                And smiles so bright, she could re-ignite a dying star

My oldest -

Living in broken places, decay

                in a cave of dead bones with a rotting corpse she calls a mother

And she stays so sweet, so innocent

                You could whiten white with her heart

And among thorns

And ropes and chains

And down long, dark alleyways

                I wandered

Pushing past these gifts and into the world

alone

On a quest for romance

Sword in hand

                Fighting furious

The king and captain of a battle lost

No spoils, no victor

All the while, the light was shining still

From one border of my home

                To the other

And they welcomed me back

                Arms opened wide

So wide, so free

An open field to run in

Part of our town took some rebuilding

Part is still underway

                We tinker at it from time to time

But they brought me home

                Into my own bed

And into my own place

                My OWN

I could stop pretending

Stop drifting

                Fighting

Shaking my head back and forth

                The dog who won’t swallow the medicine

Take the fucking medicine!!

And when I rolled over

                And showed the soft, white of my belly

Arms and legs bent and in the air

Resting and ceasing –

I found my smile again

I found the peace

                The romance

And thank her, thank them,

                Thank God

It found me too