   
   
   APRIL VIOLATIONS
   
   by
   
   Klaus J Gerken

   (1998)


   
   
   Voices
   ~~~~~~

   Shadows
   
   Shadows 
   Voices
   
   Darkness
   
   Darkness
   Light
   
   Light
   
   Tinsel
   
   Tinsel
   Paper
   
   Paper
   Shadow
   
   Ink
   
   
   27 MAr98
   
   
   
   
   
   RAPE
   ~~~~
   
   dunno anything
   stupid am i
   frightened am i
   purple bled
   and like a corpse
   am i
   wish they'd kill me
   wish they'd
   kill themselves
   but i know
   it will never happen
   the only way to kill them
   is to kill me
   and they will be
   no more
   
   29 Mar 98
   
   
   


   if you find you can float
   keep on floating
   savour the dream
   before it comes 
   crashing down
   
   31 mar 98
   
   
   


   
   walking on water is simple
   staying afloat is not...
   
   31 mar 98
   
   


   RECYCLING GARBAGE
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   there was an article in the paper
   the other day which said
   university professors quit
   over cutbacks for english
   classes...because of computer
   courses...so i thought
   now where a soft BA was
   good enough it's no less than
   an MBA now and that means that
   all the BA's have to upgrade and the
   MBA'a also before they can
   get a job and the vicious cycle
   begins again and again
   like he computers they maintain...
   i though this is what the world
   is coming to...no amassing of
   experience and wisdom...just
   facts that will be useless in a few
   years replaced by facts that
   will be useless that will
   be useless that will be useless that
   will be useless...so
   where is all this leisure they
   promised us computers
   would bring?...i know they
   brought us many things...
   many things that cannot be
   denied as good...but the
   universities should refuse to
   conform to a standard that can
   never be met...a standard of
   refuse...no more wisdom
   no more knowledge...just the 
   facts of the moment
   required to maintain a 
   silicone machine...
   they forget that once there
   was a base of knowledge
   and wisdom and the means to
   utilize it that cleared the way
   to this amazing society...
   no one thought to teach
   foresight...no no one
   thinks to teach anything...
   
   2 april 98
   
   
   
   
   
   morning
   ~~~~~~
   
   what a
   stupid way
   to wake up
   
   alarm rang
   in my head
   while
   i was
   dreaming
   
   4 a.m
   after only
   two hours
   sleep
   
   so wouldn't 
   you have it
   couldn't back
   
   to sleep and
   got up
   hot black
   
   coffee just
   made me feel
   like a dizzy
   
   fool
   launch the day
   ny friend
   
   i think
   we'll ave
   some fun...
   
   3 Apr 98
   
   
   
   
   soutine
   ~~~~~~
   
   he sat 
   mumbling
   to himself
   in a noisy
   restaurant
   in montmarte
   and pulled
   his thick black
   serbian hair
   when a bell boy
   dressed in bright
   red devil colored
   uniform
   walked in for a
   quick drink from
   one of the many
   cheap hotels
   suddenly the
   flame in his
   own head burned
   like a forest fire 
   and he thought
   of the blood of
   beheaded chickens
   and the carcass of
   a horse and
   knew he had a 
   brand new
   masterpiece...
   
   3 Apr 98
   
   
   
   speaking of exhaustion
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   all day on course
   tired out of it
   getting home
   real late and
   just crashing
   and eating a
   big stake and
   drinking some 
   good wine
   wasted because
   i could not
   savour the 
   bouquet and 
   so much more 
   like answering 
   correspondence 
   and trying to
   understand 
   the world
   after trying
   to understand
   the world
   for 49 years
   and making
   a muck of
   all of it and 
   getting 
   nowhere 
   not even a 
   shred of
   wisdom to
   show for it...
   man i thought
   this is great
   nothing to
   show but 
   being ordinarily
   human...nothing
   special you
   might say but
   yet it is..it is
   the most special
   moment of all
   like a flower
   blooms like a 
   tree grows slowly
   steadily and
   is a symbol
   for great 
   perseverance 
   and so this great
   plain human
   endeavor is the
   one voice that
   really seems to
   matter
   
   hope we do not
   taste it...
   
   3 April 98
   
   
   

   
   to Leonard Cohen
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   there was fruit in my opium cabinet
   i don't know who put it there
   i was surprised
   i thought the dream would last forever
   guess i was mistaken
   one day it was the 60's
   the next it was 1998
   one day life was simple
   and everyone you admired most
   was still alive
   and now only leonard cohen
   and keith richards survive
   guess that says something 
   about whiskey
   guess it says something
   about all our lives
   once i had a future
   now i have a past
   how did all this time
   pass so goddam fast?
   
   3 April 98
   
   
   
   
   dull saturday
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   watching
   an rerun
   of one of
   the planet
   of the apes
   movies...
   don't know
   which but
   some
   engrossing
   features...
   morning
   taken up  with
   errands
   and now
   just bought 
   a second bottle 
   of rully 
   "la chaume"
   1995
   and just felt
   like more
   after the first
   bottle was 
   such a perfect
   chardonney...
   at the moment
   am downloading
   internet explorer
   4.0 and that's
   taking a million
   years but am glad
   there's multi-
   tasking and can write
   this poem at the
   same time and
   jeez the fuckin'
   movey's over
   and i missed
   the ending and
   well so much for
   that and all the 
   world spins on
   and i don't really
   thing that 
   anything like 
   this is very
   important anyway
   maybe just the 
   wine...maybe just
   the wine...
   
   4 april 98
   
   
   



   found saying
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   fill yourself with desire and see the great illusion
   empty yourself of desire and see the truth
   
   


   
   
   Venice
   ~~~~~~
   
   4. am
   headache
   drinking too much
   watching thomas mann's
   ..Death in Venice
   great stuff
   the boy's as pretty as a girl
   the old man's  like a petty argument
   emblazoned on a wall
   surrounding the great agony of hope.
   
   5 Apr 98
   




   
   mutiny...
   ~~~~~~
   
   rough day
   nothing seemed to go 
   the way i want it
   to go
   cold wind
   beautiful sunshine
   but just crossed that
   threshold between
   good and awful
   oh well
   tomorrow's another
   day and
   as another day 
   would have it
   the same but
   very different
   life's a very
   strange disease
   wouldn't you
   have it...
   unless you
   believe in
   some kind of
   religion
   it's often hard
   to see a purpose
   but i guess there is
   for as much as we
   are thinking animals
   we are here
   to dig the great
   purpose
   to understand it
   to uncover its
   mysteries
   to ultimately
   become the god
   we so believed
   we had to worship
   
   we're a pretty
   gullible bunch...
   
   6 april 98
   
   



   
   dictation...
   ~~~~~~~~~
   
   exhausted
   drank too much
   rather disgusted
   with the whole day
   watching the 
   twilight zone
   and then go to bed
   five hours sleep
   and back to work
   strange weekend
   getting stranger 
   all the time
   seems the older i get
   the less i understand
   i  look at all the
   computer disks
   lying scattered
   on my table
   ten years ago
   this was inconceivable
   what will things
   be like
   ten years from now?
   but then
   save for this one thing
   everything's the same
   the books
   the guitar
   the tables chairs
   and of course the
   paintings
   everything the same
   
   so what really
   has changed?
   technology...
   the way we process 
   information...
   radio, tv, internet
   but the basics
   of humanity
   food shelter sex
   remain forever
   the same
   and that is why
   we communicate
   with the great
   spirits of
   any age
   that is why
   the poet is
   immortal and
   inviolate
   that is why
   the search for
   truth is eternal
   and that is why
   the universe
   can never be
   without us...
   and therefore
   nether can a god...
   
   be blessed be
   blessed be blessed
   be blessed...
   
   6 Apr 98
   
   
   

   
   history
   ~~~~~~~
   
   there was a time...
   
   7 april 98
   
   
   
   
   
   poetry
   ~~~~~~
   
   what i'm
   trying to
   say is this
   poetry
   doesn't
   have to be
   verbal 
   ingenuity
   one doesn't
   have
   to
   know
   a lot of
   word
   one just
   needs to
   have 
   the 
   discipline
   the great
   commitment
   of a seer
   a shaman
   a man
   or woman
   obsessed
   with a great
   possession
   a search 
   for truth
   i don't care
   whether on
   says exceptional
   or good
   i just care
   that the person
   writing is
   sincere
   about POETRY
   about poetry
   about making
   a commitment
   a great 
   irreversible
   commitment
   art is not a
   sunday sport
   but a quest for
   life and death
   if your commitment
   to being a poet 
   does not include the
   possibility of
   death you will
   never a poet
   if i drink too much
   i drink because
   i need to write
   and if i die from it
   think of all the
   great poem i
   might have 
   written
   without it
   none...
   need is need
   sex is one thing
   poetry another 
   
   poetry supreme
   
   sex just
   comforts me
   poetry puts me
   in a great 
   high gear...
   
   8 apr 98
   
   
   


   
   brief encounter
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   i saw her standing
   on the sidewalk
   cautious to
   approach people
   but she approached me
   no more than 16 and
   blond and slim and
   so beautiful as only
   youth can hold beauty
   captive and she
   explained:
   do you speak french
   i said no
   she said i am trying
   to be an exchange
   student and want to 
   go to vancouver 
   to improve my 
   english (she had
   such wonderfully 
   cerulean blue eyes
   which could only
   pierce an old 
   man's heart...
   there was a young 
   boy with her...perhaps
   her brother and 
   continuing she said
   i wonder if you like
   to buy some chocolates
   i am selling to help
   me achieve my goal...
   
   how could i refuse...
   (indeed i thought
   how could i refuse
   her anything...)
   i recall dropping a
   five dollar bill
   on the street asking
   her if she had some
   change...
   she did
   but i don't know why
   but there was a communication
   for some reason she trusted me
   and after our brief
   encounter she and the boy
   walked on down the road
   not asking anyone else
   for money
   
   i put the chocolate bar
   into the breast pocked
   of my leather jacket
   and went shopping
   for the groceries i
   had meant to get
   getting home
   the damned thing 
   had melted 
   
   i will always remember her....
   
   11 april 98
   
   
   

   
   drunken afternoon
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   listening over and over again
   to pulp's different class cd
   not only does it provide me with
   a feeling of youth i had forgotten 
   had existed but it also gathers in me
   one moment one fine moment
   where everything is clear in a
   muddy world...
   
   potatoes growing in an alley
   must be sweet...
   
   11 april 98
   
   
   
   
   
   
   who am i to tell a poet?
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   moshe tells me
   it's sincerity
   that drives a poet
   sincerity of 
   purpose sincerity
   in life sincerity
   of knowing what
   must be the truth
   moshe is correct
   no poet ever
   survived history's
   discrimination
   without sincerity
   of purpose of life 
   of truth 
   
   apologize to those 
   i cannot understand...
   
   11 april 98
   
   
   


   
   predictions
   ~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   the judge said the planet was in jeopardy
   there was a huge asteroid coming and there
   was no way we could escape the destruction
   and we all had to take shelter not that it 
   mattered much because the force would be
   greater than the force that struck great jupiter
   and we know that was a force that was
   greater than this fragile  can withstand
   
   so now comes the great final day which
   of course the religious leaders have
   forecast day and night again until they
   got it right but nothing ever happens the
   asteroid without a notice in the papers:
   death delayed additional year...
   
   11 april 98
   
   



   
   from a whore to god
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   said i love you apple
   of my eye peach of restitution
   enter nothing but the moment
   enter no past no
   future enter only you
   she said she said
   i had a hearing aid so
   i could hear the difficulty
   and knew nothing
   of the sexual expression
   i was only one sap fool
   gathering the present case 
   of anything minor...
   it wasn't she rejected me
   i only got one hour
   and the bus was empty 
   and after all it was a 
   religious holiday
   dogs barking and the 
   virgin in the shelter
   giving birth to adam
   i give you incense madam
   why i'll never know
   frozen star above the desert
   oh i rival your solution
   but cannot express my 
   discontent somewhere
   one king gathers
   somewhere one king gathers
   somewhere his subjects
   shake each other's hands
   somewhere somewhere
   god grants peace...
   
   11 april 98
   
   
   

   
   WHO GIVES BIRTH?
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   when adam ate the apple
   was he pleased appeasing eve
   i don't think he was
   pawns don't like her position
   used abused what was
   great eve doing...
   listening to a serpent...
   she was plotting 
   that's ok
   most women plot
   the female builds the nest
   he male doesn't always
   remember...he's a pawn
   lost in a brash genetic
   game...sperm wars...
   not the best man
   who can win...
   the  brightest sperm...
   
   if knowledge is experience
   the man commits
   the woman chooses...

   11 Apr 98
   
   
   
   

   break the barrier...
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   i am your illumination
   you are mine...
   speak to me
   i will be clean..
   
   
   11 april 98
   
   

   
   
   weekend
   ~~~~~~~
   
   what a shitty
   space to be 
   placed in
   nothing secular
   and nothing even
   religious...
   girlfriend gone
   (argument)
   and half drunk
   trying to 
   rationalize the 
   moment which 
   really isn't a moment
   after all
   and thinking
   (if it can be thinking)
   that no one has a
   purpose...smack in
   the mouth...teeth
   hurt and moses
   made it to the top...
   of the charts...
   i haven't listened yet
   but understand
   fame and fortune
   can't be far behind...
   but the weekend's
   like a glass of rum
   devastating...
   tomorrow i will 
   wake up wondering
   what a simple fool i 
   was...what a simple
   fool...yoric would have
   laughed like a hyena...
   yoric's always right...
   love you yoric...
   trying to be a poet
   isn't easy...
   lotsa times 
   you get lost...
   and when finally
   you're found...
   all hell breaks loose...
   he was in the wilderness
   he ate locust...
   he's not fit to be
   associated with...
   he's just a beggar...
   no one listens to the words...
   no one understands
   the argument...
   they just wonder if a
   miracle will happen...
   it won't...water into wine
   just doesn't happen
   unless it mamurian
   slop and you've got to
   slosh it with water
   to make it drinkable...
   (the roman's were
   so durable
   in everything they did...)
   but i guess that's
   quite off topic...
   it's the weekend we were
   discussing...
   beautiful weather...
   regular disenfranchise...
   alone even in a crowd...
   sometimes tv
   (ten commandments)
   sometimes music
   oh yes music!
   (common people...
   highway 61 revisited...)
   moshe says
   these days can't be
   relived...but
   memory is pliable
   and if you don't
   grow up (girlfriends
   comment)...you can
   live forever
   in the retro world
   you chose...
   but maybe i am just a
   questionable
   entity...i who
   know so little...i
   who know nothing less what
   i believe i saw before 
   i regretted to be born...
   (my mother said so much)
   "you refused to come out...
   I suffered so in labour...
   was i ever to forget it...
   the buddhist creed looms near...
   one rebirth too many
   is a loss onto the gods...
   i always had a 
   penchant for dante's inferno..
   knowing charon and his golden coin...
   leopardi and his ices...
   now i'm drinking rum and cola...
   don't know why i
   have to say this...
   had some stupid conversations
   on a chat group...
   way too drunk...
   and the weather
   was so beautiful...
   and the ladies had so
   little on i was
   impressed by their demeanor...
   last night i watched
   the waning moon
   and wondered where
   the footprints where..
   that was after
   cindy left and
   we had such a stupid
   argument
   which could not be
   and can never be
   resolved 
   that way we pay this
   tragedy...
   shakespeare would have
   been impressed...
   but the night unfolded
   like a drunken brawl..
   me with myself...
   shadowboxing...
   once on the canvas
   i just kept counting
   to ten and hoping someone
   would hear and get me
   out of there...no one laughed
   that was a plus
   but no one got me up 
   and i just lay there
   staring at the lights
   listening to the
   social audience
   pointing to 
   deliverences
   watching light bulb
   after light bulb
   explode in the face
   of my devaluated
   sensibility...
   what was i to do?
   visualize the final
   menu before the
   comet hits?  i don't know
   i don't understand a thing...
   my girlfriend on the other hand
   knows everything...but
   it's hard to come to grips
   with personal understanding...
   the streets are like a corpse
   and i wish i could go
   on the roof and lie naked on
   the gravel and commute
   with the stars of the big
   dipper and could 
   understand what i have
   always known and
   and never comprehended
   about what einstein 
   and oppenheimer
   spoke about at the
   breakfast table...
   half a million dead
   sure makes a jolly
   breakfast...just like
   those who turned the
   ships away back to 
   germany because it
   wasn't their "responsibility"
   i don't think my
   weekend was insane...
   maybe i was just a pest...
   forgive me if there
   was a gerken at any 
   of the death camps...if
   there was i wasn't one of 
   them...but i do apologize...
   one eight jew...i hold the
   law of moses in my hand...
   and weren't it for my
   mother's courage...how
   could i be here living
   a life of relative
   leisure while so many
   starved thinking i
   could free them...
   after i have been
   the sperm they could
   not see...
   infecting future
   ministries....
   
   i guess i could have
   said i had a great 
   weekend...but how
   could i have made
   love to the world
   knowing i have been
   a criminal --those who
   have aids are liable
   those who have a past 
   disease are 
   resurrected to infinity...
   
   don't spread 
   your crotch to me
   i am just an understudy
   of a dying plebeian...
   simple?
   don't lie on the beach
   giving cancer a second chance...
   
   holy water
   sprinkles just like
   any fear...
   
   13 apr 98
   
   
   


   first new poem
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

   felt shitty all nite
   this morning nauseous
   maybe i'm pregnant
   been gaining so much weight
   drinking too much
   eating more
   nervous energy
   frightening dreams
   some alpenbitter
   to soothe the stomach
   seems to work
   let's have some more
   sign on to a chat room
   inane talk
   anonymous decomposition
   gotta write some poems
   can this be the first?
   
   18 apr 98
   


   
   
   lola
   ~~~~

   oh lola
   from sunny italy
   says she loves to 'fuk'
   says she loves 'sexi site'
   lola didn't say much
   but then
   couldn't see her
   body language...
   
   18 apr 98
   
   


   
   lola 2
   ~~~~~~

   remember
   when
   john and i
   did a version of
   lola by
   the kinks
   in my 
   basement 
   apartment
   back in 74
   
   still have 
   the tape
   gotta listen
   to it
   sometime
   makes a 
   great return
   to what?
   
   18 apr 98
   
   
   

   
   1130 blues
   ~~~~~~~~~~

   shivering
   late nite tv
   voices in my head
   bad stomach
   don't dare
   to drink my wine
   spent  most of day
   in bed
   hardly sleeping
   but not quite
   conscious either
   shivering
   sweating
   stomach cramps
   if it persists
   i'll see my
   doctor on monday
   maybe just a
   bad intestinal virus
   strange 
   to say the least
   otherwise
   seem to be 
   fine though
   hope this goes
   real soon
   hard to write
   with so much
   distraction
   a real pain...
   
   18 Apr 98
   
   
   


   
   foundation
   ~~~~~~~~~~

   an airplane might be able to fly faster than the speed of sound;
   but without a proper airport it will never get off the ground.
   
   18 Apr 98
   
   
   


   poet
   ~~~~

   a poet explores emotion
   a poet isn't just angry
   or sad or in love
   a poet dissects each feeling
   and reassembles it
   to teach...
   
   18 Apr 98
   
   



   
   the history of love
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   sometimes it's the shadow that involves me
   sometimes it's the light
   but right from the start you enveloped me
   with a terrible might
   and only when i freed myself
   i knew what love was
   a blast of perspiration
   a comet captured in a glass
   
   transfixed i tried to gather lightening
   i stood naked in my shoes
   fake pride held me together
   many years later love was glue
   hold me while you can dear
   a rag i fall apart...
   
   20 apr 98
   
   
   
   
   hammer
   ~~~~~~

   there was knowledge in your thunder
   but you needed a gentler attitude
   break the egg slowly...
   i'm not in a crunching mood.
   
   20 apr 98
   
   



   paradox
   ~~~~~~~

   i fall apart on your threshold...
   you say wipe your feet
   i bow like a beggar
   you say don't slobber on the floor
   i hold your heart in my hands
   you say what for
   i crush your heart for what it's worth
   you say crush more
   
   gentle has no meaning
   dust is never swept
   where wine glasses stand empty
   lovers have wept
   and sometimes love is poison
   sometimes love is kept
   so hold me in disquiet favour
   know me for my breath
   
   i stand like might hercules
   upon your threshing floor
   the alter of your permanence
   has just become your door
   with nothing left to offer
   you hide inside my coat
   why are you such a parasite
   why am i such a prefect?
   
   20 april 98
   
   
   
   
   memorial
   ~~~~~~~~

   craggy ezra pound
   village explainer
   knew too much of nothing
   sometimes i remember you...
   
   20 april 98
   
   
   
   

   trying to be positive
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   my girlfriend hides my wine
   thinks it's gonna kill me
   smoke a pack of cigarettes a day
   killing both of us...
   
   20 april 98
   
   
   
   


   day to day
   ~~~~~~~~~~

   i want my poetry to be like picasso's art...
   every moment counts...
   
   20 april 98
   
   
   
   

   inferno
   ~~~~~~~

   i have been in a lost valley
   where life is a shadow 
   and dream the reality
   
   where the blue mountain
   in the obscure distant mist
   are the only landmarks of my being
   
   where hunger and deprivation
   are the poets empty hollowed thought
   lost eyes   lost soul
   
   24 april 430 am
   
   
   


   when streets become impersonal
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   these streets haven't changed since i was young
   but i have changed so the streets look different
   so what becomes of our precious reality?
   is it there or is it not? do we postulate on possibilities
   
   or do we just let things go? knowing nothing, feeling
   nothing, masticating precious moments revolving
   forever in the doors of false eternity? one more argument
   and it might well be the black inferno we become...
   
   motion me no argument...i am shadow to the light...
   i have no thoughts that might envelope you...
   perhaps we have nothing in common...you're just there...
   
   i envy you...knowing there is nothing holds you back...
   no shelter no warmth... no real passion but a "fuck"...
   play me for the man i am...melting now? I'll remember you.
   
   good luck...
   
   24 apr 98
   
   



   where is love anyway?
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   it's a simple moment
   that embraces us
   coffee at the dusty table
   at a broken restaurant
   
   looking at each other
   love was melting butter
   cold coffee rotten buns
   and your sweet face like God
   
   embracing me...tell me honestly
   why does your love harken unto me
   why not someone better
   
   perfection has no search
   only a humble argument why
   two lovers should or should not be together...
   
   24 apr 98
   
   
   
   


   do i know you don't you care
   does it matter anyway?
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   
   i've got an invalid chair
   louis the 14th
   people ask me why i
   don't get it fixed
   i tell them i'm in love
   with possibilities
   
   yesterday i loved a goddess
   today i love a woman
   who need perfect when
   credibility exists?
   
   24 apr 98
   
   


   
   what a woman wants
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   what's the better way
   turkish coffee
   or grecian wine?
   nothing matters
   after a few open
   women spawn your way...
   graven truth purple moment
   sex is like s soft solution
   to a trade in naked armour
   the harder the steel
   the less the complaint
   
   a man notices death
   a woman life
   soldiers pray for victory
   a woman prays for distress
   
   24 apr 98
   
   
   


   shooting star...
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   i know i'm pretty drunk
   but i celebrate life
   how many do so sober?
   
   24 apr 98
   
   
   


   history changes things...
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

   i used to admire you modigliani
   now i only hope you rest in peace...
   
   24 apr 98
   
   



   
   evolution
   ~~~~~~~~~

   i met her in the elevator
   we had a fast affair
   last i saw her was on television
   last she saw me was in love
   
   24 apr 98
   
   
   


   total me
   ~~~~~~~~

   do you love me she asked
   perhaps
   she threw a brick at me
   she was the perfect woman
   perfect never lasts...
   
   24 apr 98
   
   


   
   advise
   ~~~~~~

   don't bow to rime.
   
   24 apr 98
   
   
   
   


   love hits you when you least expect it
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   she was walking with a woman friend of hers
   and catching sight of me on this beautiful spring day
   smiled and mouthed a silent "hi"
   at other times it was a shy smile she gave me
   this one was bold and powerful as if an
   understanding between us had developed
   finally after all these years of walking past each other
   only i thought i was the only one who noticed
   each day for the past two years i saw her
   either in the morning or the afternoon
   my eyes always followed her and were pleased to see her
   but she never let on that she knew -- until now ---
   and now i am at a cross roads -- whatever the future holds
   i must follow her lead --- take this to it's ultimate conclusion 
   
   28 apr 98
   
   
   
   

   april
   ~~~~~

   "april is the cruelest month"
   why does it always fork our roads?
   
   28 apr 98
   
   
   


   
   love
   ~~~~

   love is like a cavern
   you walk into the darkness
   it hits you with the light
   your eyes are likely blinded
   you shiver and you tremble
   you ache and you mumble
   and everything's alright
   
   
   28 apr 98


   All poem copyright (c) 1998 Klaus J. Gerken

   Published by Ygdrasil Press
   http://www.synapse.net/~kgerken
