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,