John Libertus Poems

I remember feeding you and talking,
in the silence that the stroke
left you for speech, trying to tell you
what I had tried for decades
...

You left the door half-closed behind you,
I keep it that way, still,
and sometimes look through it to find you,
and sometimes wonder if I will
...

If bread is all, baby,
the fat man on the corner
has a ticket to heaven
in his billfold -
...

I am Sakala Shiva, Father of Wounds,
Full-Moon Shiva, One with the Mother, I kill to save -

don't worry about it, it's gonna get better
...

I saw them on the sidewalk, man and wife and little girl,
and, like the rightful man I am, I smiled
at the little girl's sweet innocence,
and glanced at the man;
...

no point in waiting,
the wind is rising;
I'm going, and I don't know where -
...

I've often thought of how my old man died:
a cancer, they said, shaped like a star,
grew in his brain, and fed upon
what he could call himself
...

I wake alone in the afternoon, a strong wind is blowing -
the forecast says colder tonight;
after all these weeks of hiding in greyness,
the sky has cleared to a mystery,
...

My Darling, you lived so much of your life
like a bird on the ground,
cheerfully busy, knowing
that much of the beauty,
...

If I must dance in the dark
then you lead
until we turn again
...