Two Deaths

Lost Love

Sometimes when you are talking

I want to say “I love you”.

I don't know what you'll think

Or feel – so I don't say it.

I don't know what you'll say,

So I simply do not say it.

How many loves gone by
Because I did not speak?

Time as well as loves

Went passing by my window

Unknown and then forgotten

Because I was afraid.

And soon I will be dead

And never have been loved

By someone that I loved.

And the dying earth won't know.

And the dying earth won't care.

At Sea

Out upon the ocean,

Far from sight of shore,

Many miles from waves,

But wishing for no more

Than a lone companion

In the craft with you,

You suddenly discover

He wishes for it too.

You do not quite believe it.

Then all at once there's land.

And you hesitantly touch

Another human hand.

Two Deaths

Did Jesus have his angels

Fire a fusillade of lead

At Rodgers and Puccini

To be certain both were dead?

Lungs and jaws and hearts -

Cutting holes in throats -

Cancerous and bloody -

Tossed in different moats.

Each of them wrote music -

Beautiful forever -

God was very thorough -

But not very clever.

Not a single bullet

Removed these men of sound,

But a thousand bullets
Put them in the ground.

Called a god of love -

A pinnacle of gall!

The good do not die young -

But the bad don't die at all.