“I wake up like a stray dog
belonging to no one.” ~ Jack Gilbert
Some days I don’t want wisdom,
don’t want art, just need to have someone near
to hear my silences, my large and little
noise. Never asked to be alone.
I’d take something as shallow as affection,
someone to ask me anything. Someone
to love me a chance to answer. I mean give me
a chance to give. A poet I was
wrote that when a love dies you carry
a heavy rock until you can’t
anymore and then mark where
you set it down. This is called
“Carrying the Stone.” What a poet does
is carry his mark. I’ve said we draw nectar
from the fractures but I know
that’s a lie. All love is one love
is another. I don’t want all love,
I want hers. But I’d take anything
as deep as her hands dipped in my shallows.
If someone touches you are not alone.
Take wisdom. I need someone near.
~ from James Bertolino Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2000)
