Just enough

there will be just enough time

before heartbeats explode

contradictions abound

among even the anointed

power is shielded deceptions are wielded

write it down

write it down

now is the hour
this prison is not

the ransom you owe

like a cormorant she flew low

over the crowd

the Buddha agrees

driven by powerful winds moving south

that inner child she wouldn’t 

go anywhere without

don’t pay attention to me

until the bottle is empty

write it down

write it down

now is the hour

when sheep jump a’plenty

take the leap she shouts

the Buddha agrees

there is no need to send in the henchmen

be unafraid of the slow unraveling

mapping a country

your mindscape your having to

stop for a look at the dismembered

how quickly a bottle is downed

how unending the royal crown

how under-the-weather must a 

homeless man be

how unkind are humans 

who pretend to be fasteners

of time between pages

who lie among arguments

who fix the disasters

nearly always shut down 

when her voice got too loud

like a cormorant she flew 

lifting off from a crowd

of angry old men

reading while drunk on a ledge

among living preferring the dead

she would like to write a great poem

if there is time

if there is room

for greatness on a dying planet

he asks so innocently

are you willing to stay on it

she laughs and says, where’s that at

one slips, like a button

through the slit in the cloth

write it down

write it down

now is the hour

listen not to the ones who boast

this is what she remembers the most

write it down

write it down

one slips, like a button

through the slit in the cloth

nyc 9.15.19