Blessed virgin, whose shapeless loathing
has caused striation in her forearms-
giving herself to the faceless lovers
who will live her story without her and within her
what touch is human that does not taste of salt?
what flower blooms without our notice?
the breath of kings which mingles with fresh-slain serfs
made more clear by the biting cold surrounding them
blown-out socks
the smell of overbearing soap
the desire for friends at a train station
belonging without requirement
On the second tuesday of a boring september
the lady at the front counter
(the one who gave you your room key)
may have wondered how many of you there are
and how many won’t realize that they have always been you.
It’s amazing to me how your poems always exude the feelings of intimacy with strangers; as though I were an empathetic parasite that had the pleasure and honor of hopping from one human experience to the next … subsisting solely on the loneliness, ecstasy, confusion and tenuous beauty that is life. I had hoped after all these years that i’d Find something here … and i’m Better for having found something. It’s interesting how, upon rereading some previous entries, that they still feel familiar even though the memories and emotions connected to them have changed, waned or died. That is good writing—when you welcome it as an old friend who has wounded you, let you cry on their shoulder and hugged you for as long as you needed.