When nice is not enough

(Date unknown)

This is not the way it is supposed to be,

I think, but do not stop,

Nice is a four letter word I hate hear

When nice is the last thing I ache to be,

And vow not to become one of those

Lonely old men who want but can’t

Get up the nerve to take what they need,

This balancing act between proper

And profitable spoiling their lives,

When we can live our lives only once

And better to push in and feel strong

Than to miss it altogether,

My hands lingering with the scent of you

While my thoughts know I many

Never breathe it in again,

Thinking of that old cliché about

Better to have had and lost than not

To have had at all, said by some

Poor fool who knew nice

Would never do at all,

But where’s the edge, the point

After the plunge when nice guys

Pick up the pieces

Nice but not nice inside,

Where all men know well the truth,

And so I reach in and feel it

While I still have fingers to feel,

Not carrying what I’ll think

About in the morning.