Patti Masterman Poems

We were so innocent and naive-
Children, trying to teach ourselves
Adult ways.
Imitating the adult omnipotence;
...

You're breaking my heart
Everything you've asked for, I've given
You're the reason I got up each day
The thing that kept me driven
...

God bless America, Kate sang
And I cried over and over
Listening to my little record player
Each time, they were shocked
...

Always be happy, my darling
Always, even when I'm gone
Always be happy, my darling-
Because in you, my love lives on.
...

Life is just a series of vignettes
We perceive as flowing time:
Wings brushing my cheek.
A shiver of coming storm.
...

what does it feel like
to be so alone down here?
we tell each other our dreams
but no reality can touch any other
...

the secret sky has some ferocious questions,
though we like to think brilliant things always surround us
and that naked time will kiss the dirt of our fathers
but breath dies here as eternity blazes away;
...

the magic perfume of yesterday's translucent woman lingers
like smoke breathes through an open window
why did the blue ocean wear a wake
pick a flower child once gone wild
...

The sun in splendor
Gives off light,
And she has not
One fear for night.
...

The stormy petrel scans the blue waters
In the depths a starfish hunts its mate
Mermaid dozes in watery caverns
Dreaming the seahorse chases her-
...