Stephanie
S’definitely Stephanie!
Her kiss is a heavenly
swan dive for bliss,
headfirst, into The Abyss.
When my incessant restlessness gets worse,
she kisses me — my insecurities disperse.
When she lies next to me,
my fantasies acquire new complexity
and turn to verse.
Cautious and dispassionate Experience says less
than her caress.
Cecily
I used to get
upset and feel
subjected to
increasingly
excessive stress
with which I needed
least to deal.
I say I felt
I used to get
because, you see,
it seems now even
fantasy
means less to me
since yesterday
when Cecily
said yes to me!
Ann
Oh, Ann, it’s so!
I see you once
or twice at most
then meet you and
immediately
notice only
your sweet smile
and feel as though
I need to not
know what I know.
The past unfolds,
the path is shown,
my fantasies
increase their flow,
my heartbeat slows,
my confidence
begins to go,
my hopes to grow.
Kathy
Beneath her tight black velvet jacket
Kathy wears a satin blouse,
the gold of which exactly matches
her blond hair and best allows
her to move and speak out loud
in motions hardly now imagined.
Alison
1
Alison’s blue eyes
electrified the air between
herself and me (her smile
disturbs the atmosphere for miles!)
It’s true! Don’t laugh! One glance
upset my plans. When we shook hands,
I looked directly in her eyes
and didn’t stand a chance.
My last resistance failed,
the past’s significance grew pale,
appeared to no avail and passed.
2
And deep-asleep he seem’d, yet all awake,
And music in his ears his beating heart did make.
— Tennyson
I seemed to breathe sweet air
and from some source that knows no bounds,
to hear melodious sweet sounds
(almost more than I could bear).
The distant shore seemed near,
despair seemed far, my thoughts seemed clear
but once my fantasies unwound
they took me there from here
and here from there,
then the other way around,
then shook me up,
then let me down.
I plummeted back through the air
and struck the ground.
Cindy
Listen for a minute,
this is serious. She isn’t
like the rest. Yes, I surrender!
Cindy! Since we met,
previous meaninglessness
matters less.
Liz
Yes, I like Liz.
What about it?
Think I’m in for it?
I doubt it.
She’s got a boyfriend, so?
It’s mildly annoying,
boring, void of interest.
What’s the difference?
I don’t need to know!
She isn’t going steady,
and she and I are evidently
getting heavy. Yes, it’s true.
What am I supposed to do?
The fact that I like Liz
isn’t what you think it is.
Think of it if it were you.
Mary Ann
I was seriously in doubt
about what things are all about
and couldn’t understand
and didn’t think I’d soon find out
and can’t explain exactly how
or why this all began,
but the past seems childish to me now
since I met Mary Ann.
Lisa
1
La bella tua Zerlina
non puo, la poverina,
piu star senza di te!
Non puo piu star senza di te!
I really mean it, Lisa, please!
You don’t have to tell your boyfriend.
I don’t think he’s going to see
my side at all. He’ll get annoyed and
say it’s him or me.
I don’t think he’ll listen.
I appreciate his position
and to some extent agree.
Three’s a crowd.
I seriously doubt
he’ll want to let me take you out
even for a drink.
But Lisa, please don’t turn your back,
don’t give my fantasies the axe
and leave me here to sink!
2
I know there’s nothing I can say.
This is Real Life. What’s the use?
Does poetry change night to day,
or lies to truth and light the way?
Aren’t words a way to lose
but say you won, refuse to pay
and say you’re going to go, but stay?
A way to not yet have to choose,
a means of subterfuge, delay,
of substituting old for new
and calling yesterday today?
No matter if I’m right or wrong
I’ve held my feelings in too long.
I feel too old and it’s too late.
If you said yes, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
My heart and head would detonate
and bury us beneath an avalanche.
No One Loves Me
And pride, what have I now with thee?
— Poe
No one loves me. No one cares.
It’s hopeless. There’s no use.
In anxious vain pursuit,
my soul sought truth and met despair.
My broken heart’s beyond repair.
The visions of my youth
evaporated into air.
Experience has laid them bare.
The fruitless search is through.
I felt that I was almost there,
said happiness is everywhere,
but all along I knew,
in blindest moments was aware
what fate concealed from view.
Song
I was cured!
I was sure Her auburn curls
were off my mind.
I thought I learned
to read between the lines,
resist the urge
and recognize the early signs.
I felt I’d heard
indifference in every word
and put the past behind,
but yesterday the past returned
my sentiments in kind
when almost inadvertently,
by fate’s design,
we met, exchanged a casual word
and glance, Her ice-blue eyes met mine,
my soul took flight, a free, free bird,
left Earth behind
and showed me Truth a hundredth time.
