HALFWAY THERE POEM
i
searched again/ half-remembering for what/ half-searching for what i
half-remembered/ not knowing if i half-knew where i was/ or if that
other part of remembrance/ that is not half-forgotten/ can be
half-remembered too/ i know little more/ than the little i have known
all along/ that whatever i search for/ will only be half-known too/ a
lifespan was spent on this/ strutting a rubber chest/ being
half-tickled by half-loving fingers/ half sent to sleep by touches
half sleep inducing/ most often a face behind the touch/ and a mouth/
opening, spitting and gargling/ in bathrooms long since darkened/
celebratory gestures then perhaps/ performed by a group of
dismembered beings/ proud stubs performing tricks/ maybe not for want
of pennies/ but more so for being more than half-remembered/ most
often some parting favors in the halls/ phantom limbs to hold and
hit/ phantom shouts and phantom spit/
halves
of halves/ and phantoms lacking phantom grace/
a
room then, later/ half-different or entirely forgotten/ with someone/
who out of respect for a semi-conducted itinerary/ sits half-arranged
by a desk/ half-reading or at least half-pretending to/ in a book no
more than half-important/ when something looking fully remembered/
erupts and runs the crest of a wave of an incoming frown/ mustering a look of surprise on cue/ until the curtains fall over half of a
half-invented mind/ heckled he thinks/ by trained monkeys
half left behind/
