The Kiss

Published May 15, 2014 by rlmcdermott

Who’ll sing
my song
when I
am gone?

Who’ll paint
the sky?

I live
for love
who can’t
be loved–it
is my fate.

I am root
and I am
flower–soon
will be my
bitter hour.

A knife,
a rope,
the wind,
the sea,

these are
the things
that call
to me.

You stand up
and I fall down;
I dance for you
who cannot see.

Is love
what I am
all about–
I sell my soul
and I sell out?

A pair of eyes,
a wisp of hair
and I am lost
and I am there.

Wars are wars,
countries fall,
children die and
I am born.

Again and always,
I return to find you gone;
there must be something
more than this–someway
to end this bitter kiss.The Kiss

Headlines

Published May 13, 2014 by rlmcdermott

How did
this happen;
dead beneath
the headlines–
blue metal,
blue bird,
blue child?

Imagine
the moment,
the sharp
slap of air,
the ferocious
snap of wing,
and then
the still
and certain fall.

And you,
the child,
all breakable
bone; your
arm twisted
until it spiraled
out of its socket,
and like the
bird fell
down.

On a cold Sunday,
inside a newspaper,
beside a metal dumpster
two things dead–
a bird and a child.Child

Andante Deliorosa

Published April 8, 2014 by rlmcdermott

Mineola
Rosyln
Old Westbury
warm summer nights
in a three-piece suit
gray fedora
Walter Mitty
bobby pins
floral housecoat–
once around the block
without a license

Wilkes-Barre
coal mines
John L. Lewis
brick shithouse
battle-axe
St Paul of the Lily–
it took seven years
to ask her to marry him

Sister Anne Bernadette
Mary Schroeder
Nancy Drew
with a built-up shoe

Lost in New Jersey
Lost in Brooklyn
Lost in Manhattan
Lost on Long Island

No need to
ask for directions
right turn
left turn
bear right
bear left
stop–everything
was played by ear

The Artist

Published February 27, 2014 by rlmcdermott

I’ve written
so many
poems
for you

and painted
pictures too

blue and
red and
gold on
paper made
of skin

I am
ashamed
of how
I’ve loved

a lantern
floating
in the sky

could not
have burned
as bright

I will
not stop
until
I reach
the sun

and all
my art
consumed
in flame
gives fiery
birth to your
sweet name