For Tomorrow

Eastbound trains of fleeting Friends

some sentences I swallow

the conductor's call interrogates:

What about Tomorrow?

who's got hands for loneliness

and a fire-hose to cool

the flames of stale atonement?

my belly full of school.

summer's song though resilient

skipped the final coda

New York State hind' enemy lines

I tried to be a soldier

panic's hum electrified

I shivered in my chair

as morning broke, no death defied

her Ghost hung in the air

now sleep is seldom a fast-find

my dreams too often sober

and even if I kiss the night

I fail to disown her

memory walks all by itself

without a cane or crutch

repeat your vows of silence dear,

I'll say them just as much

still, all the angels look alike

when round my bed they hover

they got long hair and sun glass eyes

and crab to one another

Below I lay,

my eyelids shut,

my tendons taut as stone

counting all the pleasantries 

and perks of the alone