Measure

Tell me now stranger, if I serve myself

In delicious ambiguity on your platter

Would you taste me bit by bit?

Would you gulp down my consciousness

Of eternity in seconds to come

Ticked in time by magenta sunsets?

Tell me now, tell me a little of your forefathers

And how you metamorphosed into the strangeness

That I see today, that I see now.

Tell me how you lived and how you laughed

And how you loved--

Tell me all of them scratch by scratch

While I measure myself.

Tell me tales of the seagulls

And how they flew overhead

When you embarked on your journey

Of ten thousand miles across light years

And seven seas’ ugly lonesome nights.

Tell me about the northern lights and the winds

That blew my slumber away in dreams to come.

Tell me now, for I long to hear them

From your lips, from your eyes.

Your voice creeps into my ruggedness

And wakes me up; stirs me down

Like a cup of freshly brewed coffee

That is how you taught me to measure myself.

And I measured this stark consciousness

Dressed in satin and silk from the Far East

Elegant as the regal attire, delicate as the dew drop tiara

And I measured myself and grasped the meaning

Of the wondrous look in your eyes

That I am priceless!