Some Deaths, This Incarnation

Don't have a paranoid night
because you can't make
one of our maybes
and then I don't telephone.
We can go a day or two
trusting in the planet
we got together under.

But your anxiety means a lot
in a footsore world
with heartburn all around.

We got the date and place right
to be together on earth.
Even Telly Savalas
proved mortal
Melina Mercouri
can't always be the gypsy
drowning on celluloid
even Charles Bukowski
cashes in
at the cosmic racetrack
even Burgess,
another with
such steely purpose
in the guts
of his typewriter.

To think they can
no longer work the keys
not so much
as a cockroach might
makes the verdict
on human effort
dubious.

Even a god worth his salt
would go on gilded splinters
in such an environment
and take on doubt
and the luggage of woes
signed on for in
limbo's perilous
corridors.
That's why I say we can
go a day or two beneath
the planet we got
together under.