Home

Recombinant {Southern Cross}

by Richard Paez

Hungry for What You Have

cut myself from these muscles (all rotten moorings now)

lay my tendons down (severed anchor-lines)

drop these bones (useless ballast they are)

burst from this place at last (a man free from himself)

 

child, tell me a story, because I’ve grown bored with myself.

I’ve run this life through and through and through

now I need to live through you (to be reborn in you)

 

I need to be reborn in you, because what was me is dead.

cliché as ash and dust, wanting something new

child, child, let me taste the life in you (live a life through you)

 

this is what is left of me, what so interests you:

a ghost of a man without weight or wrestle

hungry for what you have.

 

a ghost of a man without weight or wrestle

hungry for what you have.

 

 

EVERYTHING THAT WASN’T (and will be again)

Sweet as milk from a virgin’s breast,

loud as the dead man’s yell.

In this space between seconds on my broken clock

I’ll find the runes with which your name to spell.

In this place between breaths in my mother’s womb

within my skin your name I’ll spell.

 

This is everything that wasn’t

but could have been.

This is everything that wasn’t

and will one day be again.

 

 

Mirror Song

Don’t grow so obsessive—

don’t lust so loud.

Bite your tongue,

your lip,

your nails—

it’s the only form of possession

that you are allowed.

 

Don’t grow so incessant.

Don’t you be so proud—

counting your hours by the seconds

as you follow her around.

 

Bite your tongue,

your lip,

your nails—

‘cause it’s the only possession

you will ever be allowed.

 

Look me in the eye—

Is this why you want to live?

Is this how you want to die?

 

(and will be again)

This is everything that wasn’t

but could have been.

This is everything that wasn’t

and will one day be again.

08/21/2005

Author's Note:


Hung from the stars of the Southern Cross I look down and see the world that you hardly remember, blue and blinding, as perfect and painful as they day you first looked up at me and said

Posted on 08/21/2005
Copyright © 2024 Richard Paez

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by James Cavet on 08/23/05 at 01:55 AM

I still envy your way with words. Your intensity is very easy as if these sorts of thoughts are everyday. I can't say I like either one more than the other. Both are equally beautiful.

Return to the Previous Page
 

pathetic.org Version 7.3.2 May 2004 Terms and Conditions of Use 0 member(s) and 2 visitor(s) online
All works Copyright © 2024 their respective authors. Page Generated In 0 Second(s)