BACKGROUND

Look
hold my hand.
Notice how everything but our hands
becomes hand.

This is how it is,
you and I.
We are held in everything's palm

Look
at my eyes.
See how all but our eyes
is eye.
We are watched by everything's eye

Lay
your mouth against mine.
This is my joy,
to kiss
and be kissed by the universe

THE REPLY

for Craig Fields



. . . His sigh
broke the stillness
with a weighted delicacy

as if to say
don't
you
under
stand . . .

and each word
bled slowly
as from a wounded mouth

'I,
too,
have
given
up.'

my face shuffled the subtle expressions of terror

the moment was brief

and so quiet

ASK YOURSELF

Fast-forward ten years later fast-forward ten years again
It takes a real long time to make the people comprehend
That we're our own masters and there is nobody else
And no one left to blame unless we blame it on ourselves
Who set the course of our lifetimes and the skies right overhead
Who built the cities from the ground up and who buried the dead?