Three Poems by Joshua Meander

Reaching for You

Starry-eyed woman with your sad past
And your name that should be a perfume,
Look deeply into my eyes.
For years I've been a dry fern
Awaiting your sun-showers.

Kiss me the way tide butters the shore.
Open up with the vastness of the sky:
Let me live to reach for you.


Amnesia: A Sickness and a Cure

To have no recall of those bitter
Yesterdays would suit me just fine.
Being without a clue to my own identity
Would be terrifying.
What a relief to lose a private weakness
Overnight, because I woke
Not knowing I had it.
To not recognize someone dear to me
Would be torture.
Being oblivious to chronic liars
And two-faced connivers
Is of no service to me.
Perhaps through meditation
I can manipulate a state of forgetfulness
To erase unwanted memories.
Now that's an idea worth remembering.


Invoke My Presence

The favor that I ask of you
Is an invitation for your next big cry.
I'll softly stroke your palm.
We'll take refuge in solicitude.
A surge will conduct a murmur
To the heights of a concerto;
A mist will condense into a blur
Of melancholy, and drip after drip
We'll taste its depth.
Our pouts will merge and we'll pause.
Permit me to share the billing
When the initial tears wring out;
Such a moist act will bring us
Closer than ever.

{Poetry by Joshua Meander}