of knees and jaws

I'm off to New York for the weekend.
Here is a poem to carry you through.
Don't ask me any questions about meaning.
My body wanted to do the writing this morning.

Feet wiggle in the breezeless air.
Close my eyes, hands dancing the keyboard.
Aging body awakes with random aches and pain
I counted last night, in just 3 years I will be 50.

Cindy had her knees replaced.
The same long note again and again
resonates the past in my flesh.
My body is unready to let go of the pain.

I awaken in the night,
Frightened by creatures I dare not name.
My jaw reminds me in the morning
tenderness is the name.

In Eugene they dance in silence
only poetry is allowed to interupt.
In Chicago a fiddler plays in the stands
I wanted to be blind as well.

duets play in Portland park
only children are allowed to interupt
Arianna teaches in Nicosia
Holds silence, music, composition, form

we are hoping to keep our knees here
surrendering to unexpected beauty
and madness of life at/in this age
now Alexis will pull me off the stage

lose the thread of my existence
Allow madness to awaken
Put on my mask and corset
blind myself and fall into your arms

Find dance without harmony or rhythm
let it drop, return, end, begin, and drop again
The audience will need something to hold on to
I no longer deny the need to hold onto them.