Swans

[saw]

in the valley of spent cartridges
there are opaque images as I traverse
what happened, or....maybe it didn't,
the tendency is to clean it all up, all
the fuzzy fragments laid out on the amateur
archaeologist's table, the puzzling puzzle
in shards of time....hey, I need to revise
the revision, polish up any rusty misgivings.
would you prefer my sterile fiction or me relating
that incident in Key West.....OH, never mind
I probably made it all up. but if I did it, anything
off-color that is, I'd like to confess now and get on
with the atonement, I mean, I'd tell you the truth
if I knew it, But I don't know what to say other than
I am fairly certain I was no angel.......
My blues voice wants a song of redemption
And perhaps the " truth " might be incidental anyway
So let me have the stage tonight,
'cause the swans are cresting the banks.

[sasha]

moments in time -
when courage deserted me
and I did the easy thing
rather than the right thing...
when I hocked up words
intended to hurt
and they did...
when I was told to "leave it alone"
and I didn't...
when caught in a lie
of my own devising...
we're neither saints
nor sinners
but some weird chimera
of both

[saw]

you just wrote a fine poem Roy....

my favorite , the poetic response....