I’ve come to learn 
that haunting isn’t bad 
it’s a being of
having once beautifully been 
just like those empty 
glasses that you see
the morning after with 
lipstick and finger prints 
and you feel that 
warm mixture of misty 

I see patterns 
and from them
I begin to 
cut the cloth 
of human experience 
and the parts 
that I make 
I start to 
stitch them together 
with the thread 
of these words 
taking one thing 
and making another 
from even less 

My name 
means nothing 
more than 
a label 
a title 
something to 
search for 
my face 
means little 
more than 
a thing
a smile 
something sometimes 
to see
my soul 
well it
means more 
than anything 

I do a kind
of Hokey Pokey dance 
where my feet are
solidly placed in presence 
with an eye on 
the future my expectations 
are therefore grounded in
what is today and 
my possible disappointment hangs
around out there beyond 
like unfinished unhung wallpaper 
I may get there
but I probably won’t 

So sipping something 
helps to open 
it up but 
not it specifically 
but you or
rather your nose
and your palate 
a kinda tickle 
and a teaser 
maybe dating works 
the same way 
by opening up 
the feature that’s
about to start