"Entering Us Through Breath," "But It Is Forbidden," and "The Buddha Trees"

Entering Us through Breath

I couldn’t tell you if one was man or woman
Or how they met their end.
I couldn’t say where one began , another started
Or how many.
But I can tell you this:
They have never taken to the ground,
No matter how much is heaped upon them,
                                            They are now creatures of air

But It Is Forbidden

This morning of streets
emptier than anything from my
deepest darkest youth.
 
Not even a beggar to drop a coin to
not even a reason to unlock the doors
useless to lock anyway.
 
Ambrose comes in.
 Tells me about darkness and men so scared
that only by killing and striving to not be killed
by one another can they bear it.
 
I pour hot black coffee into his cup,
warming his hands,
 a browner porcelain of prayer as are my own.
 
On creaky chairs
face to face our audible lips in unison ahh.
 Hot bitter caffeine rewards us another day.
 
We have silence.
We have soft grey light through shuddered windows.
We have no need of heat yet.
 
I get up and from behind the counter
bring a small tin box
knee to knee we look in
share the same ingrained thought:
but it is forbidden.
Then broadly smiling.
We two grown men
each pick out a cigarette.

The Buddha Trees

I have escaped.
Finding myself
In a foreign country
Smoking endlessly free tobacco
Finding myself
Only able to sit by this window
Looking at trees
One after the other
 
I have escaped.
Finding myself
In new running shoes
Safe among strangers
Finding myself
Only able to hear music in my head
La  la la la la   la laaa
A woman’s voice
As if asking,
Could I take up my instrument once more
As if saying,
Together we could skip through spring once more
As if trusting the concealment of trees had been enough