poem for an old friend

caught in your darkness, old friend
you are not my friend. as if hair

could replace the sun. I traded that light
for years of days, once wrote poems

your dark eyes, saying words
like nocturne, gull's wing, egg of moon

but they are just dark -- as hate
dead father you carry, the alleys

you drag yourself through night after night
in your mind. don't write about my pain

as if it was something you woke up to. Your own--
all you ever knew.

still here (poem)

we are all here. from the day the earth took her
first breath on the water, drops of sand

shoals, the amazed waves and fire-lit
coals in the belly of wood - we are

still here. no-one got out. no prayers
rose a steaming path to heaven. no

your precise disdain, nights spent indulging or denying
your body-temple, curled like incense, rising

is new, is old, is dying like the leaf
the planet, and you

still meditating, dreaming of escape.
you are still here.