(no subject)

[hawleygriffen]

There Are Delicacies / Earle Birney

there are delicacies in you
like the hearts of watches
there are wheels that turn
on the tips of rubies
& tiny intricate locks

i need your help
to contrive keys
there is so little time
even for the finest
of watches

The Tavern / Robert Plath

what matters most
is the rim of the whiskey glass
at midnight
as you lean on the
thick lip of the wooden bar
and smoke curls
past your eye
and the jukebox
plays a song that you
will never own
and you prefer it that way
even though it's one of the only
songs that makes you feel good
there's something savory about
not owning some things
and you sit in your small cloud of smoke
and say things you would never
say
and the night is a little powerful play
that must end
but not right now
not right now

Age / George Johnston

Peace, all but quite,
Jeanne talking to her cat
whose eyes are shut,
tail tip stopped, all but.
Pretend sleep
on an uncertain lap
with the familiar voice
quoting cat sense.
Age, that in its clutch
bears the spinal itch,
makes hind-quarters weak
and stomach sick,
also rounds the purr
rounder than ever before,
and brings pretend peace,
peaceful almost as peace