Beside myself
you carried me to the burial
of my still corpse
which I think one
of the best I ever saw
who loves as well
as the eyes
Sad poems
Sad poems — a collection of the best works on Poemship.
Last rites
my breath rattled
the pigeons went quiet
doors come to be great friends
with the dead
I eat my afterself
and depart into story
the coroner will be called
to examine my joy
Old bore
a dull lecturer
am I a better captain
having lost the ship
having ended in a sad home
evening like a great wound
I am not able to miss
Take-Out
At the bottom of the pasture,
a house trailer with one of its
long walls neatly removed
like the lid on a Japanese bento,
so anyone can take in its contents
with a single glance, flashing by
on the highway, sunroof down,
radio blaring, & look —
there’s a wee kitchen,
a living room with sagging sofa-bed,
two bedrooms & a walk-in closet
gaping empty: neither clothes
nor the bodies that slipped in
& out of them, white as rice,
growing round on next to nothing
& never feeling full.
Hand to hand
my hands huddle
with a dram of brandy
at the bar as if
at my own table
hearing me cry
they touch one another
not to pray but to part
having had no quiet
Betterment
if I could put back
in the box all
my dark rain
and play a poet
of insipid ruins
would I live
only on the road
and stop being hurt
Limited partnership
let our work all go to sea
green as a drunk
on an apprenticeship
before we tell of the many defects
the small charities
the joy still dying
Decomposure
one evening
dangerous in memory
I died
my hands
understand me
or some melancholy any thing
Gyre
in the drink called ocean
all the spoils of our joy make
a great turn
into one burial
Sunburnout
any doubt may spoil
directions to the sun
looked upon as a sort
of government
for neither the fig
nor for my poor face
miserably swelled
Crowd control
in days of sickness
a great crowd comes
to the wrong world
from pain
comes alone
like some hoped-for good luck
and I am silent as the moonlight
entering my bed
Hapless
how to mourn people
who have never been happy
unhappiness falling like sleep
over this wild wonder of a body
that nobody prizes
true as water may happen
to be held in flux
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