Goodbye 14

Is it true that Troy lived life without a

written form before the Greeks invaded

with their horse, or did I learn that from a poem?

Either way, is that not how affection

ends, married or devoted to motion?

The upper hand forgetting how it felt

to feed the token, the brass first held in

the fingers then dropped into the subway vestibule.

This daily verb and its prescription cost,

on the rise from root to roof, would have you

be an estimate of man, could convince

you to never love another or another as he goes.

& if my looks one day be gone, my mood

will excuse my bad behavior. O trophies

of action, between which occasions suffocate,

& which boil into vapor, I should have seen X coming.

Not that anything would change the case, or more

Closely approximate the correct answer, but with the lawn

exposed I would not have to wonder when

it is you enter and when it is you leave.

Source: PoetryNow (2019)