Music Lovers *From my book Thoughts on Tonight*

 

a single moment

          frozen in its own epiphany

new and unheard

 

we can’t help but

          silence our selfish consciousness

          give our full attention

forget how our own hearts beat

 

ears long rusted shut

          now open

address everything else as hush

 

this moment evokes reverence we can only attempt

          in concert halls

 

eternal fragments inhale our breath

          exist through us

          exist exactly for that purpose

then let us go before we’re ready

 

before any of us realize what’s been played

          and what can still be sung

 

 

My Brother

 

My brother’s buying some late night drive-thru tacos

finds an empty parking lot

takes two bites and starts to choke on his tears

throws the meat and shells onto cracked concrete.

 

He cries, confined in his self-made solitude

because he’s lost and fat and feels too old at thirty

to love himself enough to let his parents find love in him.

 

As he tries to catch his breath, his heavy chest trembling

despair’s miserable voice forces its way up his throat:

escaping as shrill staccato wails

tapering in leaky muffled defeat

never reaching the edges of the parking lot.

 

He wants to forget these goddamn gaslights

overused check cards, midnight binges, trashy apartments.

Forget it all and let a father’s hug, a mother’s kiss

make him innocent again. Instead,

 

the darkness leaves him hungry with no appetite

with only his car engine coughing in cold air

and a broken taco to believe in.