WOLF CRIES —

no one came to save her

but it wasn't the first time
she made threats

she was likable 

and persuasive
even talked me

off a ledge once

made me supper

at her place

but

no one came to save her
and she asked forgiveness

from God in her last words

i keep seeing her 

at the edge of the dock 

howling and wailing

waiting for someone 

to show up and 

help her fight

in the end though

no one came to save her
but three-hundred people 

cried at her wake

sang amazing grace

myself among them

APPLICATION —

You become 

every moment

you become
 

PRETTY DAMN GOOD —

2 young females sit on
my right and talk in a
soft urgent tone,
probably about
their love life

to my left is a couple
who stare continually into
each other's eyes and
laugh about everything
and nothing at all

the Vietnamese cooks are behind
me chattering loudly

I don't speak Vietnamese
so I tune them right out
like the buzz of
electric lights

others are everywhere
talking about this, that
and the other thing

they are angry, happy,
sad, in the middle,
unsure, and together

in the seat directly across 

from me sits no one

just a pair of ivory chopsticks

I know what must be done
and I dot it

THE WAY IT IS —

I understand nothing
except maybe

solitude
drunkenness
and loneliness

that looking
an angry man in the eyes
makes him more angry

that the factory men are
always better company

I am hardly real

and
there is no roof over
the mountains

THE CORONER —

tables typically turn
too late
too gone

the warmth of wrath
replaced by distance
the light roots
held before
the dark

a procedure precisely
lacking
in time 

_