The Best Moment Of The Night
You had a moment with the dog,
down near the base of the butcher-block table
just as the party was getting started.

Just as the guests were bringing in
their potluck salads and vegetarian lasagna,
setting them down on the buffet,

you had an unforeseeable exchange of warmth
with this scruffy, bug-eyed creature
who let you scratch his ears.

He lives down there, among the high heels
and the cowboy boots, below the human roar
rising to its boil up above. Like his, your evening

is just beginning — but you
are lonelier than him. You think
that if you disappeared tonight,

you would not be missed for years;
yet here, the licking of the hands and face;
and here, the baring of the vulnerable belly.

You are still panting, and alive, and seeking love;
yet no one who knows you
knows, somehow,

about your wet, black nose,
or that you can wag your tail.
A Blessing
Sure, there may be no
angels guiding us towards light,
nor higher power

arranging scholarships,
nor parking spaces
that suddenly materialize

in front of the Olympus Theatre,
where your new play,
Sink or Swim,

is triumphing.

But then again
there is my neighbor, Mrs. Susan North,
with her aluminum walker

and oxygen mask,
who takes her dog out twice a day
and wears a plastic baggie

over her left hand
to pick up shit
so all the other living people

won’t have to step in it.
Marriage Song
God said (and already you can tell
I’m making this up),

Let this woman and this man
Be joined together

In front of the sea and the grass
And the trees who don’t care

He said, Let them make
A gate in themselves

Through which the other can pass
And may the gate never be closed

So they can feel the truth of being entered

And the loneliness of being
Imperfectly misunderstood —

Now go, God said,
Into the country of love

Change it with your experiments
Don’t be intimidated     Enjoy your skin

Impress me
Make something grow

For your bravery merely in undertaking
This impossible task

I make you a special loan called Time
No, don’t bother to thank me now —

You can pay me back as you go