image

TOURING

Coming in and out of cities

where I spend one or two days

selling myself

where I spend one or two nights

in beds that do not have the time to fit me

coming in and out of cities

too quickly

to be touched by their magic

I burn

from the beds that do not fit me

I leave sated

but without feeing

any texture of the house I have invaded

by invitation

I leave

with a disturbing sense

of the hard core of flesh

missed

and truly revealing.

I leave poems behind me

dropping them like dark seeds that

I will never harvest

that I will never mourn

if they are destroyed

they pay for a gift

I have not accepted.

Coming in and out of cities

untouched by their magic

I think without feeling

this is what men do

who try for some connection

and fail

and leave

five dollars on the table.