25 Hour Watch

1.

Half-price Easter chocolate
tastes strangely
of dusty bread
and a hint
of sour
grapes.


2.

and to tell the truth,
I love you.
and to tell the truth,
when I say that
I’m lying.


3.

When you came on the television
chopped off at the waist
and speaking in tongues,
I wanted to turn away
but I knew already
that there was nothing else on.
So I watched you
for about fifteen minutes
until something happened
and they cut back to the studio
to report on it instead.


4.

Just before I fell asleep
(last evening)
I composed a set of lines for you.
(I did not write them down.)
They were fluid and lyric
(and full of my longing)
but when I awoke
(this morning)
they had fled in the night
(taking with them some silverware)
and so I only have these lines
(sorry as they are)
to apologize.