© 2003  Kint McLerity

One Hour

The day I roll over in bed

To find you next to me, dead,

I'll rise, dress myself in clothes of black

And grieve for one hour.

One hours seems the proper length

For your mourning.

One hour to regret the minutes

I wasted in anger, in our few fights,

An hour to cry over the weekends

I spent hard at work, instead of with you;

One long hour to lament

Over the lost nights, sleep took me,

When I could not talk with you until the sun

Rose again while we watched together.

After that hour I'll strip away the black

And redress, perhaps in my green dress shirt

The button down and my oldest pair of jeans,

The ones you love so much now,

And for the rest of my life

Never will there be a drink before a toast

To you; every smile will be a small red flag

Flying with your standard of pearly teeth;

Every night I'll locate a new star

To name after you and every morning

I'll lift myself with eyes closed

and kiss the sunrise

Where your lips used to be.

Stargazer

Admirer of a vast starlight mural:

A spinning carefree school girl,

Arms tucked warmly across her chest,

Gaze pitched up to view the rest

Of the universe as it meanders by,

With a star-glossed smile in her eyes,

As if never having seen the black sheet.

The night sky guides her feet

Through stellar patterns sailors plotted out

She dances, eyes on the steps charted out.

Spinning with the rotation of the earth,

Every event leading up from her birth

To the simple moment of gaiety and mirth

Of stargazing from a parking lot on earth.

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All poems are copyrighted property of Kint McLerity.

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