Lee Bassett

Sometimes, there are times when I cannot bear
to be alone. Sometimes, I wish that my basic pain
could melt into the sadness of another.

Sometimes, I wish that when I light a cigar,
my whole body would catch flame.

Sometimes, as if bonding is an emergency,
I turn into someone else
and knock uninvited
on a door.


----


And with a hint of what your nakedness might offer,
you came down tonight
to save another human being.
And after, like the migratory wings
that swarmed in to eat the berry-tree,
you moved on.

Here is what happens, when the heart wakes up:
on Halloween, according to the law of sadness,
a man-child comes to our door in costume,
and makes us cry.
And, according to the law of joy,
we open that door,
and a great wind
full of snow
turns us.

Misch Kohn (1916 - 2003)