The Light Within the Darkness & 2 More Poems

THE LIGHT WITHIN THE DARKNESS

Chagall’s celebrant Russian folklore
foreshadowed somehow
the deeper sadder island serenity
of your dazzling palms
which radiate tears
and your portraits of tiny upper class
Dominican girls
decked in regalia
for some ten year old coming out
with harsh eyes that stare
at the nothingness there.

All the wedding, the carnival,
the sexual relief
in a schizophrenic street-made murmur
when his eyes
…my eyes…came to look at the gallery
of island repose.

I slept at the edge of the bricks of El Conde
watching you sketch the end of my nose.

THE COLD BEYOND THE DYING COALS

Lipitor to control cholesterol
…and a dragging of the feet
within the living room and hall.
And an undigested bit of meat
to mince the bowels
and make a wicked Christmas come.
Ah!, for the idiot childlike love
that a pauper used to feel
before the bitterness ensued
and joy was turned
to something rude
…and the speech of lonely angels was made dumb!

COMPUTER EVENINGS BEYOND DARK

These sad symphonic violins
melt into the walls. Your art
hangs there as well
like grace among the myriad sins
which mortal poets with the heart
pen in tribute to this hell,
this world, this pearl, this pain, this pill…

computer evenings beyond dark
in a luminous yet flickering room
…men’s triumphs end on such an arc
…like traffic lights on lonely days
revealed beyond the rain…in haze.