a young man

you are sharp
you are tall
you make  judgements     
on all who surround
you - with glittering eye, foxed,
how you label and box, decisive
you chastise,
how confident your eyes -
not capable of asking why, 
of knowing how to feel
human;  humanity;  humanistic -
your base of eloquence is instinct -
sealed, clipped, easy, exact,
hermetic  - is
fun, fun, fun,
so strategic -
how  your whole life is
surface stuff on the run,
lacking in some
thought some  depth some basic
analysis, understanding, how you
are callow - young -
so fresh and barbed, strong -
yet to be stilled,
smoothed,
sprayed by
life, by life's trenchant,
by its bare             
blood red event-
you are yet
smooth,  angular, sharp-edged,
prepared, unhoned,
you are not yet come across the hard,
the unexplained,
the alone
and  you are not yet pale.
the very sale of yourself
has not yet been asked:
you do  not aim for hope, objectivity,
purpose,  lucidity -
 the dilation of your personality
 has not yet been asked -
 you are perfidy personified.
these,             
these,                   
are not in your reality,       
do not enter in              
to your one-syllable
vocabulary, your one-dimensional
space,
your diamond  one-pointedness
in its ignorance                    
is yet too young
too lacking in sense
to know when  you hold gold in your hand,
to know when  you hold love, devotion, trust
         
all emotion.

this brings a warning:
your life your foundation
is founded on sand,
golden, yet cold.

I say your turn will come:   
when  you are bowled,       
boulversed by love: when you
pan  for gold
find pyrites only
find no hold, no grip.

your boldness will not then suffice.
I predict
there will be a dark trip,
a time of reckoning.                
no  recompense.
Collected Works
Return to Collections all
next poem