Distance makes the heart grow fonder June 5, 2012

 

This far out

I need a telescope

To see what is

Right in front of me,

While you say

Distance is likely

To make me feel

Less obsessed,

I find the old adage

As true:

Absence making

The heart grow

Fonder,

Looking at it all

As if all is new

When nothing is,

A paradox you claim

As splinters

That reveal our

Inner lives,

Too close

You seennothing

But pores and

Poor excuses,

Nothing translatable,

Just a mysterious

Universe of

Me and you,

How many times

Can a man say

Sorry before

It sounds phony

Even in his own ears,

Distance may make

The heart grow fonder,

But by your logic,

It gets chilled in

The depths of space,

The whole universe

Is just too vast

For a simply mind

Like mine,

And yet,

Too close to the sun

And my wings melt,

There has to be

A happy medium

Or at least

An unhappy one.

 

email to Al Sullivan

Photograph

Photograph (ringo & George) 

needless to say this struck home in a number of ways. An old song written by Ringo and George, but reflects a lot of my feelings later

The feel of lips (2014)

 

I feel you

With my lips

As we sit

Side by side,

Lips along the ridge

Of your shoulders,

My fingers easing open

Your block so I can

Reach in and draw you out

And let my mouth

Feel you there, too,

My lips kissing each lobe,

Then lower, longer,

Until I reach

The most precious

Landscape of all,

Your sweet juice

Dripping into my

Hungry mouth,

Pressing my tongue

Into that space,

Letting it linger,

Circle you,

And then take

The plunge,

I am drunk

Before the first sip

My lips kiss

Dripping

email to Al Sullivan

OJ in the morning Feb. 24, 2013

 

(In response to her poem about orange juice)

Reading this leaves the acrid taste

I haven’t tasted for years,

The morning juice ritual

I underwent religiously

As if believing what came

From that container

Was an elixirs of life

Her pome coming from

A not so innocent time

When kids listened

To their mothers,

Even when their

Mothers beat them,

All that long since

Reconciled if her

Facebook posts

Can be believed,

A memory she

Carries around inside her,

Pouring juice from a contain

In the fridge,

Sacramental wine

For a kid her age,

If not the blood of Christ

Then close to it,

Carrying the weight

Of the American Dream

On its back, telling her

If she eats right

Stands straight,

Does her homework,

She will get

All she deserves,

And this may scare her,

Thinking she wants no part

Of what she deserves,

Maybe having missed

Too many glasses of OJ

To qualify her

For that dream

 

 

email to Al Sullivan

Whatever you want (2014)

 

If you tell me

To do it,

I’ll do it

No questions

Asked

Do what ever

It is you want,

Where and when,

No longer master

Of my own fate.

If you want more than

I have to give

I’ll try to find it

Somewhere,

Doing whatever

May be necessary

To find it,

Selling myself,

My soul

To whatever

Dark entity

I need to reach

To comply.

If you tell me,

I will obey,

Already lost in

This limbo of desire,

A fire burning

Inside a fog,

I am what you want

Me to be,

What I ach to be,

I have no choice

email to Al Sullivan

Life line June 26, 2012

 

I am still in awe

Of God in such a place

As this,

High arches, gold ornaments

Lines of statues

Of saints whose names

I have long forgotten

Places built to

Make the invisible

Visible for those of us

Who struggle to believe

We needing to accept

On faith

When science denies us

Christ right

When saying

We need to be like children

To enter heaven,

Simple-minds

Blinded by the illogic

Of logic,

Convinced two plus two

Must always add up

To four,

When things like love

Disprove it,

Our universe floating

In pieces around us,

Needing a life line

To haul us in,

I am in awe of these places

Even if I am too simple minded,

Just as I remain in awe

Of you.

 

email to Al Sullivan

How does she feel inside? (2014)

 

How does it feel

For her, inside,

Inspired by touch or taste

As the whispered word.

Does she ache

The way we do,

The intense rise of

Fire inside

Where we cannot

Possibly quench it,

The more we taste

As one poet put it,

The more we need,

Sipping her the way

We might sea water,

Each sip making

Us thirst more

Until we need to

Drink up the whole

Sea and still not

Find satisfaction.

Does she feel that, too,

The hunger for more

Than oysters,

This need to feel it all

Deep inside,

We penetrating her

Defenses

To reach that part

Of here when

It aches the most.

Does she feel the need

That needs to be

Satisfied

Deeply.

 

email to Al Sullivan