Conjunction

Conjunction

She was the “sun and the stars” to me.
What does that mean, exactly?
I’ve heard it said, now and then.

She was my heat and my light?
Her nearness was far, yet closer than it might have been?
When she shone, I felt warm?

Too bright at noon?
Just right at night?

Astronomically speaking, one thing is sure.
The person who says it
Has no idea that the sun is a star!

My guess is that, since the whole phrase
Is housed in the past tense,
The speaker would rather she had twinkled,
Than burned.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Balder Every Morning

Balder Every Morning

Like he does not have enough of his own.
He’s covered, from ear to claw with it.
And wants mine.

I cannot tell you how many nights
I’ve awakened to this chewing, gnawing
Saliva-filled, purring feline in nirvana.

My cat is eating my hair.
Nocturnally. And it feels good, to me.
I would not tell that to everyone.

It’s all I can do to make him stop.
I say, “Jack! NO!”
But I mean, “Yes!”

And I think he knows it.
Something so therapeutic about it.
He was born at night, but not last night!

I cuddle him close, so our noses touch.
And tell him to behave.
And fall asleep again, hoping he forgets.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

Dvorak

Dvorak

How can someone dead six decades before my life
Move me so? How can his decaying tympanis
Cause my heart to quell its perturbations
With a conductor’s descending baton?
Tell me that no genius burned
Within the flags and dots of
Each five-staffed page.
And I will mention,
You do not know
My composer.
My Dvorak!

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008

We Know We Love

We Know We Love

We know we love, when, if the coin was ours to toss
We would have it land in our disfavor
Rather than someone else’s.

We know we love, when, drinking what is absorbed
By our beloved, we ask,
Is there more?

Tonight, on the way back to the car
I turned toward the misty walls of the hospital
And closed my eyes.

We know we love, when the coin is caught
While ascending. And the question is answered
By something other than gravity.

© Ciprianowords Inc. 2008