Rather

It would be rather silly to pretend
I don't want to be with you every night
And show you everything past which I wend,
As if you were a second to my sight.
It would be foolish to imagine I
Do not desire to be close to you
And hold you close as we both scan the sky
Bringing the latest full moon into view.
It would be wrong (and very wrong) to say
I would not wish for you to share my life
Never to abandon me or stay
(Although I cannot promise zero strife)
And as I wish you to hold faith with me
So will I hold with you, and happily.

Are

Were you here
I would be
(Let's be clear)
Happily
By your side
Holding you
Now I bide
Waiting to
Chat online
So that we
Can combine
Psychically
Over space
Sans embrace.

Listen

The way you speak is comforting, by now,
But don't imagine that by that I mean
Your words or manners have forgotten how
To make me listen to you. I am keen
To hear you speak forever, nor am I
Lulled into inattention by the sound.
Rather, I drink it in as it goes by
Wishing they had no terminus or bound,
Watching your face, your hands, your eyes express
Your meaning as your voice and they combine;
Loving your altogether loveliness
Of which they are but a beloved sign
And thinking as I listen and observe
How much more is your love than I deserve.

Commercial Zoning

The sudden bustle of a little hub
Only serves to emphasize the space
Between, just as the dirt beside a shrub
Attains no special or distinctive grace
From such juxtaposition, but instead
Shows all the more dull brown beside the bloom.
So these small zones of industry that shed
Their light upon the black asphalt don't loom
Larger than the gaps, the empty streets
That seem but more deserted by compare;
For where the cheering light at last retreats
There is no comfort left us anywhere
And no one cares, or dares, to walk the city
Except in little pockets. It's a pity.

Real

When I'm with you I know just who I am
And when I'm not, I still am certain. Yet
There is a part of me I'd wish to dam
When I'm alone, and let myself forget.
For when you leave me, then I miss you so
That everything I see reminds me of
The happiness that we together know
And I am saddened by your absent love.
But now that I imagine losing that -
Being without your face before my eyes
When they are closed - the world would be but flat
The sights all dull, the sunset and moonrise
Insignificant did I not feel
My love for you to make their presence real.

Curfew

The glow of neon on stone storefronts seems
A false enchantment promising void heat
And every shut shop shows unfinished dreams
Barred from completion by the steady beat
Of unimpressed and all too concrete time.
The night implies what it cannot deliver
Catching imagination in quicklime
Only to watch it struggle there, and quiver
Unable to escape, to move, to breathe
Caught in the bare reality of dark
In which the terrors of the city seethe.
No wonder shops are shuttered like the park;
The day has left, and in the harsh half-light
Dusk's promise turns to lies by bleak midnight.

Exploration

The streets are empty and the night is cold
My breath fogs up my glasses as it goes
I have known many nights that fit this mold
But something in the air this evening slows
The passage of the time. I cannot walk.
Each step seems stuck in amber. As I try
I stop. I think of how we used to talk
On streets like this, filling each other's eye
So that they seemed to fill, warming with smiles
The frigid air until our coats seemed wasted
Compressing into single strides whole miles
Savoring the joy that we had tasted
In sharing time. But now we are apart
And memory has stopped me by the heart.

Again

When I think back upon the time before
We were together, I can hardly say
That I would wish it any other way
Than how it was, because to ask for more
Would be to risk what happened, and therefore
Despite the times of definite dismay
Despite the hours when I used to pray
For easing of my heart, so bruised and sore,
Despite the sorrows, which were true and deep,
The weariness, the pining, and the stares,
And all those longing chats pre-empting sleep
Full of unspoken wishes, hopes, and cares,
I would repeat it all, instinctively
Because in time it all brought you to me.

Sights

The simple sight of your infectious smile
Makes me delirious with happiness.
I keep your image in a mental file
And when I am oppressed, I feel it less
By thinking of your face. I know I stare,
But can you blame me, when the empty days
In which I cannot see you anywhere
Spread out before me in an endless haze?
I take advantage of the chances I
Am given, and I memorize your face
So that why I am predisposed to sigh
I can just close my eyes, and think to trace
Your loving smile and your eyes that gleam;
Relieving my misfortunes with your dream.

Netflix

I always did like sentimental shows.

I'd much prefer to say I don't know why,

But let's be honest that the whole world knows

I am a sucker for a teary eye

A soft half-turn, an introspective sigh

The moonlight on the water by the bay,

Beside the dark bank where the violets lie

Just visible in the reflected day

From which sad eyes must hopeless turn away

Only to find, in turning, that they see

The lover running up the shore to say

The time has come when all that's hoped shall be.

This weakness makes me argue in my mind

We shall be happy; I've already pined.