What it takes

Night bleeds stars

when it is too early to come in

and too late to go out

so

there are too many

untold stories around

including what happens tonight –

or was it morning?

*

People say it is good

to feel pain

for there will be

poems in misery

but this is wrong:

there is only

misery in poems

*

It takes a while

to get up

from my bed

and type what it takes

to burp away from

the warmth of sleep

and I write something

very good that speaks

to you and

you and

you and

me and

it is all that is all

all that is needed

all that can fix and break

cure and poison

sober and booze

and it takes a while

though not as long

as it all did

for nothing takes as long

as it takes to take in

and I type a final word

without being swept by the

complete numbness of finishing

like a messy masturbator

and then I wake

notice I haven’t moved

the covers from my toes

and my underwear

is wet with ideas

and fears

and the empty loneliness

found in between others

and myself like a cough