"Out of Fear--Of dying alone"

"Alone"

"Are you sure?"

Someone wanted to marry me once,

she thought. But he forgot,

or died, or moved away.

And now I'll never? was hushed inside,

as He squinted at Results, twirled the white

coat, reported the Statistic. Her skin hung

placid in premature 

wrinkles as she tweaked the

significant finger: bare.

"How long?"--again.

He counted the Statistic on

one hand.

(c)krp

"Sand Castles"

Don't let me shut you out before I've learned

to let you in, though the silence dives

between us, like the distance: from skin-to-skin

and the shadows--growing longer in the dying

of the day--paint our portrait, fill the emptiness, 

in eyes hardened like clay

(that presses through my toes while I wait

upon the waves,

since no ship will mar horizon 

till you've filled the aching crave

to go haunting on the ocean without taking to the shore)

so I dig about for sea crabs and: resist

the wanting-more. 

(c)krp