piano player

hotelier, the

inside your room there's 40 few

remaining figures of new moons

to curve around your axle heart

in hopes that something new will start. they're winding down

they're closing ranks

to rest another 30 days. you lay and watch them wax and glow. you hold them in your hand and let them go. a kid half my age

baby's breath and meadow sage

clutched in her hands like trophy game

just like the wild world was tame

was granted home and tender care

into an awkward piece of ware

three-quarters full or quarter-drained

and both adversely sure how long they will sustain. my eyes greet hers and hers do mine

and then the room becomes her shrine. an older ma'am sets herself straight

and then she smiles with 88 remembered loves

and morning suns until her woven was sung. her fingers dropped like falling rain. the entire room awash with the sustain. you always said that you don't dance

but then a heel turn to a shadow stance. i'm wrung like sodden cloth. and the autumn leaves turn over across your floor

into the hall and i've declined into a crawl

and you decompress and fall away but

this floor is raised on beams of trust

and there's room enough for both of us so stay. sustain. inside your room there's 40 few

remaining figures of new moons

to curve around your axle heart

in hopes that something new will start. the things you grow are set to die. you cling to them with knuckles white. so wind me up

damper to floor

and i don't know if i know love no more.