Tomorrow Will Be Better

Sure it hurts today
dreams bashed
heart crashed
I'm smashed.
Scotch rocks
knocks the heartbreak out,
drowns the sorrow.
But tomorrow
will be better
won't it?
Anything's got to be better
than to be this bitter.
The glitter of infatuation
has washed down the drain,
but that scummy ring of pain
still lines the sink.

My life seems to have sunk.
And I'm drunk,
trying to remember why I think
that writing this stinking poem
will make it better.
But that inner voice that's helped me
climb out of this valley
before rings in my ear,
trying to get my attention,
trying to make me hear
it above the noise in this bar.

"You ARE
going to get over this
heartache,
and maybe even
the morning after headache.
Roll over, hangover!
Pain, pain, go away,
tomorrow will be a better day!"

Decide

A loud laugh,
a piercing phrase;
unwanted words invade
and break the silence of this subway car
and void the isolation I try to create.

Talk talk talk. Stop.
Time for action.

Indecision is fog,
thick and dense,
limiting vision,
seeping into pores
and sapping the soul.

Decision clears the air
and carves a clean path
through valleys and hills
of indecision;
eliminates the unwanted.

Fifteen And Forty

No one warned me
that at forty
it would be
just as tough to ask a girl out
as it was at fifteen.

That’s several lifetimes
ago and I’m many times
more confident, but
“no” is till no.
So I still hesitate to ask for a date
like I was still a teen.

Life can be so mean.
I mean why didn’t anyone warn me
that at forty
all the gaul I have at work
would melt away
every Saturday?
What’s this quirk
of human nature,
or is it just my nature?

Sure I’m Mr. Tough Guy
on the job
but after hours they just rob
me of my title,
these women I’d love to date,
and I hesitate
to ask them out
like I was still fifteen.

Chemistry

Shy boy,
extrovert girl,
chemistry from the start.

Adolescent exploration
that seemed destined to last
ended.

Or should I say it stopped?
Paused, maybe.

Decades later sparks flew again;
and fly,
in dreams, for now.

After years of change and growth,
and miles of separation,
chemistry remains.

Destiny Lesson

Why do we forget
lessons learned about
life
love
friendships
relationships?

Are we destined to repeat
our failures forever,
forgetting to comprehend the mistakes
that send us
on this endless
loop of broken hearts
and false starts?

Why can’t we move on,
not in failure,
but in anticipation of the success
our new knowledge can bring us
in new relationships
friendships
loves
life?

I Blew It

I wanted to meet you.
I watched you as you
watched the band.
Our eyes met a couple times
and we both cracked those small,
self-conscious smiles that say
it's OK to meet,
but then we quickly looked away,
neither knowing what to say.

But some guy sure did.
He gabbed a mile-a-minute
with you and your friend,
mostly your friend.

And as the band took a break
I quietly left Club Blue
and went home alone again,
blowing a perfectly good chance
to meet you.

Time And A Dream

Who could know
all those years ago
that we’d still be friends.
And in touch,
wishing to touch each other
like we did then,
and like we never did then.

Forty going on seventeen,
wondering what it might mean
to be together for a night, a month, decades,
touching hearts and other parts,
reliving youth
with mature understanding and experience.
But when?

We talk and write
well into the night
of what we’d do with time and opportunity.
You and me, we both agree,
would love like there’s no tomorrow.
But time and distance conspire against us;
so for now we’re a dream that doesn’t end.