REPAIR

1. antiphony

"let's remember we've failed
before--" i've drifted to sleep
your breath behind my ear
yesterday morning i spied you
leave the shower, water bead
on the vanilla of skin, glint
in trap of pubis, unknowingly
i witnessed a coy but faint
smile across your face
echo my own, hidden behind
cave of blankets that shelter
night-songs from sordid pasts

i know i want a clean fight
against the odds of failure
this time--sidestep entendre
&; poltergeists for something
akin to confession, or
let's agree the future
wasn't the past

2. forgiveness as virtue

i've pictures of objects collected tumbled
end over end in bathtub the faucet a drip
on books louder than screams she'd levy
against me in crash of night-time

the ex- broke into my home and threw
everything i own into a pile of scissors &; spite
--the shower cold running two hours

took this as an opportunity for buddhism
and forsaking possessions, equanimity
and sorry sorry sorry keep the spoils
of war &; divorce, i'll chant never again
never again never again

3. liquor for blood

here along
train tracks that drag like rusted
scars across athens what's evident

as i walk for downtown a whistle
on my tongue, your ear an instrument
hearing the song above din of bartenders

barflies and bargirls slipped to bathroom
for disappearing acts of love by lust
while we traded verses via tongue

our breath comingled as lovers
who share secrets known only
to drifters &; gypsies

4. coffee in cafes downtown

we'll remember for everyone
lest they forget that love with
-out risk doesn't exist; or lust
spent on bar tabs still costs
the coin of time; that today
when we get coffee and you ask
what i think of, it will be your
body and mine waking while beyond
the window leaves tumble clasped
together across the yard as travellers
which never part in bluster of winds
who do more help than harm