Dark Poetry Prose Poetry July 16, 2003 Dark Poetic Prose

7-16-03 9:25pm brick NJ wednesday

short lines in the shadow
of endless paragraphs,
lost rhymes in the canyons
of could haves -
should haves -
would haves,
but not quites;

was it you thinking
about me then,
when that phantom
of love passed through me?
or was it just residual
side effects from
learning not to want again?

just because you're lost
doesn't mean you wish to be found,
and even if you are that's no guarantee
you know where you are;

it's in the meanwhile that things really happen,
not in the moments when you try to,
not on the roads that you've chosen -
it's in the little places you never
even thought about until then
where you'll find yourself and
discover life between the living,
not what you've taken,
not even what's been given,
just what has happened
when you weren't even trying.