A Man’s Love Song – Midnight


Promising rain, a raspy-tongued
August breeze, swirling city scents,
disturbs the shingles
covering my townhouse flat,
maroons a sliver-sharp scream there
from ocean night below.

I lean across the window sill,
unable to sleep in this heat
and shiver. There’s nothing
to see, the scream’s origin
lives beyond the parking lot lights.

A primal memory uncoils with
the new, yet familiar and I can’t
control the shiver, imagine
a place of twisted ruins
five paces past this night,
where souls keep residence,
where god with work-raw
fingers struggles to reshape,
create and abide.

There, dry bones are rubbed
into dust and stars are given
birth, screaming at the rapacious
lust of the creator – solitary
god – hungry and alone.

I shiver again – is it rape or birth,
this agonized cry washed up
on the dark shore of my earth.


(a very old poem, found in musty files and edited)