How do you play a melody
deep inside the words
to sing each letter off the page
and free them like a bird
How do you write the lyrics
to a mute and silent song
that lives inside the spaces
where true music’s never gone
How do you play a rhapsody
of couplets in your mind
releasing subject-verbs to be
forever to unwind
How do you pen a chorus heard
with what the verse has shown
and give each note a deaf refrain
—within a single poem
(The New Room: May, 2022)
Goodbye
Staring defiant
into the blind eye of fate
the winds of circumstance
early not late
Staring back angry
its other eye blinked
as clouds blew misfortune
too close to the brink
I reached for my inkwell
I dipped in my pen
my final last script
to enoble the end
With one word I started
whose epistle came fast
to carry me onward
—goodbye was my last
(The New Room: May, 2022)