if i could

poetry says
“I need you”
poetry says
“don’t forget me”
and I can’t

each bookstore reminds me
I could spend every cent on words,
the smell of paper,
devour them all and just need more.

as for my own…
I could spend each day lost
and finding myself
a hundred times over,
write these
letters from the Self in me
to the Self in you
in between the drawings
the photos
the muse-posing
and the music, my master
its voice loud and constant

but of course as always
we must eat
and of course if I
devoured words and arts the way I could&would
the money and time would run dry
and I
would fade bodily into
just the words I left behind

1.4.13