Under the Moon

When will love come
with all the dreams
I have worshipped, again

indiscriminately, love
its players blind, stalks in
without being asked

takes us in its arms for a little while,
then let’s us drop, after so short a time,
leaving us broken, weeping on stones.

After the sunlight afternoons, what then,
the midnight paramours, in fleabag tenements,
oh yes, what then is left to do, where to go?

Oh god, what has become of me, where is the self 
that used to flock to bars, always seeking
for the partner, gone, turned away.

Then it happened, all of a sudden, you were there
in various guises, on the dance floor, in the back room,
piercing the gloom with cigarettes, movie theatres,

and theatre stubs, always alone, you were there,
after the theatre, greeting me in the lobby, on the elevator.

Now we are alone, in separate parts, and countries.
Who will bring us together again?

Most of my love life has been spent in longing
yet you the most real of all, and the shortest, remain

to haunt the penthouses, and chaumieres, with champagne
and three course dinners.

                       THEN
                       You have a melody,
                       that is the waltz
that imbues sex with meaning and love. Standing before the hearth,
in pink and black pajamas, with a light behind your head,
when you speak, or extending your knees backward to the log fire
I built, for the first time, arriving in the middle of the night
by cab, to the deserted chalet we rented for the summer.

How sweet it was, an ideal situation for us to bloom through
                                                          love’s care.
Yes, our health was bad, and we had too much money.
Keeping away from town, without car, or phone, or clock.

Our luck, to run out of
                        what was it?
You had other things to do, other places to be, other men to love.
And I was not enough, you were my first 


John Wieners