Two Poems from 2007

Dreams and Innisfree

Mr. Yeats, that revolutionary son of a bitch,
wrote of the Isle of Innisfree,
creating yet another dream for me,
which i did not need for
i have dreamed all my life;
it’s time to put aside such silly distractions.

tomorrow, i will meet my muse,
who has a rather promising life to lead,
not needing some dreamer to interfere,
and
we will converse, enjoy our time
discussing the possibilities
in the ambience of a slightly
avant garde eatery:
she will go away again,
forging a path to success
in her world of business.

i will go home to whatever is going on there,
playing my role,
subjugating my dreams
again,
but
it is about time i gave up dreaming,
enjoying a pretty good life,

but

then that ole sum bitch Yeats
tempts me with Innisfree:

I will succumb and dream again.

- Bonita, California
- June 17, 2007


A Pocket of Resistance

i have said several times,
“i am a pocket of resistance”
…and shall be, will be, until i no longer be me.
in the gray of twilight tonight
in this high desert
where only a few souls should survive
on a meager existence, yet
we have pumped in
life as we thought it should be
only to find out it wasn’t wouldn’t won’t
be quite what we imagined
i wondered who i be
because
i ain’t what i thought i would be
yet i dream of being what i could be me
in a land far away over the rainbow
and she walks into my reverie
and i marvel at all the things she has become
recognizing she will never be what i dream
because she is not a dream
and she does not know me
who could be what wasn’t me
for neither do i
and the world rolls on
and all the life around me is important
and as strong as the dreams are
i may not have the strength to give up that life
for what is certain to become something else
other than what we would want it to be,
yet i have a will to make it good,
make it right,
and i will will it so
and tonight, i walked down from the hill
and the free land protected from
the coming of population, and
i looked west into the pacific of the ocean
and its tones of gray and pink
long after the green flash had its chance to
knock us dead with disbelief
and i know
it is good
and i am right and should be what I could be
if i will it so.
she did that for me.

- Bonita, California
- July 23, 2007