two poems, loosely connected

[joel]

Softly and tenderly
subversively calling
someone or -thing disspassionately
silently almost
speaks of Love
spelled with a lower-case l
sensitive to nuance but unrelentingly
<center>settled
tight routinely
laced throughout your fisted
cardiovascular fingers--
truest heart-pulse, love in carnal texture
innocent union of rhythms
held out cautious heart-hands
calm and yet un-
settled.</center>Switch.
So inconspicuously do I forfeit
sense and reason, I
seem distorted in my own
self-portrait, painted on my own
self-made paper; discord love exchange draws in the channel of my own
self-abuse.

-------------------------------------------------------

Artistic masculinity displaced
olympic macho sweat with image names:
auditions for the team a poet graced,
rehearsal for an actor's improv games.

For the man who had been a fat boy
creativity was happy to diet on creative
healthy fruits and vegetables: don't unwrap,
peel candy like an orange's cousin.

Athletic skills and body images:
an honest man admits the awkward pain
of superficial Superman disease--
how harder still are broken hearts deceived.

[hester_prynne]

Damn Joel! I really dug reading both of these pieces...the unbearable lightness of your direct hit on knowing.
Wonderful! Both!

H