the nighttime geese are back

raucous

timely

and gone

now 52 and

life is more precious and sweet

than I could know then

actually 19

when I first got to New York

Union Square blackbird

in eighth grade dreaming

on stairwells to nirvana,

roadways to ruin

minutes of fame, I’m

gonna squander them and turn,

turn around on them

when she was told that

she looked like Elizabeth

Taylor, she just laughed

bookish and full of

dreams the girl was bright, waiting

for her hot minute

in love, he was gay

and kind, we were and still are

kindred spirits, love

between home and the

world, hiding, running city

streets, breathing it in

was a girl in New

York, so young, and, well, poignant

green-eyed, wearing black