Tonight

on Bleecker Street
my wife and I
come out of the rain
and walk down
the dreary steps
of the café
where we are led
to a round table
so we sit
before a small lamp
like an amber candle
burning down.

The soloist steps forward
and shines his silver saxophone
and plays the world
is new, connections
unfinished,
as if the ceramic coffee cup
before us contained
the boiling ocean,
and the dim dark lights
of the joint were the sudden awakening
of the drunkard on the street.

And, all the while
my wife holds
my hand, she does,
like laughing.

^

Biography

I was born in N.Y.C. in 1951. My poems have appeared in such journals as The Aurorean, Another Toronto Quarterly, The Ibbetson Street Press, Poems Niederngasse, Jack Magazine, and Orbis. My first collection of poems, a book of haiku entitled The Effects of Light, was published by AHA Online Books in the winter of 2002.