Poems 1960-2010

THE BIRTHDAY

After Robert Creeley’s poem, “For Love”

 

I am lying
in the dark, without you,
missing you.

even the moon can’t reach
through the skylight
and yet, dear

love, I see with
a light that’s growing
inside me.

I think you are
here: I feel you moving
in my head

lighting candles
behind my eyes. I am
not used to

celebrations
birthdays, am old, older
than you know

have candles saved
up from years and years:
stay with me, love

light them all. I
have this factory in
my brain makes

hundreds of
candles every day
for you to light.