I’d tell you
how I feel

But I’m not
sure I should

Not because
I don’t know
myself
or don’t have
the words

More because
I fear they’d be
misunderstood

Or worse
I’d have to be
responsible
as if I have to feel
the same way
forever

And there’s no way
of knowing
what the next day
will bring

(D. James)

You tell me who
you are
in small ways

Not what you say
but when

I feel you
even after you’ve gone

The waiting hurts
like someone is
pulling something
out of my middle
by degrees

There are
three cures
You
Time
or Death

I’m still deciding

(D. James)

Why is it
fortune cookies
no longer tell your future?

Have all the mystics
gone on strike?

Now they read
“Today is a nice day.”
But that ain’t no future

And anyway
it’s raining

(D. James)

A government run
by corrupt fools
is still a government
still corrupt
and it is still
run
by
fools

(D. James)

The waitresses
upbeat chatter
doesn’t match
her sad face

Tea is steeping
milk and sugar
patiently waiting

And I am lost
among the
knives and forks
plates of half-eaten meals

Thoughts adrift
in shafts of sunlight
spilled across the counter

Pay the check
leave a tip
and walk out
the same door
I walked in

Keep things simple
until my mind
returns

Bringing with it
what was lost
and found

(D. James)

Heavy with sleep
everything to do
but no time

Wait until morning
when I can think
straight again

Right now
it’s all I can do
to stay awake long
enough to write these words

(D. James)

Life moves in one direction

(D. James)

The world changes
and we change in it

Divergent paths
verge

Veer off
into other lives

Meet again
in some other form

Do we recognize
this place
as if sprung
from nowhere?

Are we known
here anymore?

Or has everything
simply moved on?

(D. James)

I looked in the place
I’ve looked before
where I thought
for sure I’d left it

But it was empty

I checked again
to make certain
and found nothing

I could swear
there was a poem
in my head
one I’d thought
about all day

But the cupboard is bare

Whatever happened
to those words?
I guess I’ll never know

(D. James)

Can you feel it
because I can’t

For too long
I tried to suppress
all this anger
all this pain

Now all I know
is this aching
numbness

Wildly searching
for an answer
when all the while
it’s been right here

Inside my head
inside of me

It doesn’t matter
It means nothing
It solves nothing
nothing at all

(D. James)