I. Poem for Morning
Sweet potential, romantic readiness.
The baby slept through the night.
What stretches out before you is unknown,
Let us bring all the gods into this dawn
And ask nothing of them. Let them be.
I will fold my blessing under your skin,
We will breathe our forms into this day.
What a motley promise is life!
Though I dreamt again of my own death,
I pledge to meet you here again at nightfall.
Yet, the promise of happiness is but a promise,
And never the thing itself — fingers of sunlight
And the play of shadow on our bedroom wall.
II. Poem for Noontime
We have made it halfway without harm.
The noonday sun is hidden in gloom.
For lunch I had a cheese quesadilla,
And I read the newspapers of doom.
Why does the business of daytime
Seem so paradoxically parenthetical?
III. Poem for Bedtime
Let us reflect upon the suffering of others,
Without which our happiness is not possible.
They buried our soldiers in Virginian earth,
But nobody saw, though the dignity of each man
And woman requires our moral attention.
I wanted to tell you something I remembered
About an intimation I had when we first met,
But I’ve forgotten now... Begin with your childhood
And tell me please the story of your life in detail...
Do we want to practice wakefulness in our dreams
Tonight or shall we merely sleep deeply and well?
Because even consciousness ends eventually...
Tomorrow let us transform the world into our vision!
And before we sleep let us wade in an ocean of kisses.
