both sides now

who makes it through?
damnit
how many pieces can be taken
more
another little one

come on
come on
come on

ache

she was sitting at table
and had been talking for some time
when she meandered
to the topic of her mother

who was a wonderful woman
she said and said this
she didn't know how to say this

only that her mother was a tiny little thing
and very refined
and knew shakespeare down to the footnotes

and her mother
had advised her to pray
always to pray
she was beginning to understand

sitting at table
she needed to say all this
her mother was a wonderful woman
who advised her
to always pray
she was beginning to understand

she couldn't say it enough

i touched the lit match
to its tip and shortly
it was scattering brief stars

into the night
i was trying to write

your name
your name in stars

a longer line of ash
the spark starves

i cannot write your name
anymore

older

an old man stands in the middle of the road
with a doll's head in his hands
earlier a shirtless boy was smashing bulbs on the street

this was on a drive that would open
to grand vistas of a mountain of myth
how many of the three hundred years have passed now?
some giant will come striding
through at the promised time

i have the complacence of those
enough has come to pass

appointments met
promises delivered also
things that fall through

enough to recall what has been done before
faith of things that come together
what is waiting around the bend

heart enough to gather what has shattered
head full enough to hold
between two lined hands