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Sample Poems by Greg Moglia
Streamlined
I don’t remember much these days and I don’t care
People want a story that works for them
So who am I? I’m 28 and a teacher who can do it all
I’m 38—the Dad arms full of Christmas gifts
Different answers—oh, you bet—life stages and stories—flimsy
I’m 48 and the lover so giving I’m forever wonderful
This all almost too easy especially about love
But with the years love defies a story
Instead borne in single acts
What we do…not do each day
I make the morning coffee
She sets the plates
I pour the brew
She makes the scrambled eggs
Catch Me
On her New Year’s birthday she catches my age by one
Now, fourteen years younger and why should it mean so much?
On my bad days I feel I’m chasing a child
With my birthday—in September—I gain a year
The beauty is out with an older man
That maitre’ d who welcomes us
Can’t take his eyes off her
Then that glance at me—his silence says
What a catch old man—what do you have to offer
And I with a confidence brewed in a weak tea
Look away and say to myself
Let’s have dinner and get back home quick
Where in her bedroom
black and white photos of Yosemite
Nourish the silence and
I’m free to disappear within.
Love
At the Burger King the old man sits alone
All the customers drive in and out
Yes, he thinks, my time is past
The young don’t really listen
Takes himself home
to his love
He loves her because
an hour talk and time disappears
He loves that she says
during those talks she knows
that most of what he says is bullshit.
He loves that for most of his BS
she’s so good at pretending she’s listening
He loves her because she insists that
Navy beat Army in football this year
Loves that she thinks she is never wrong
He imagines being with someone
not nearly as sure of herself
and it frightens him
He loves that she is always ready to help
a friend, a neighbor, an old love
He thinks, I’m old and a love but senses
the ‘old love’ she tells him about is not him
Unlike the world, she’s tidy and neat
Always seems to be in place
He wonders that so often
she places herself beside him
He loves her because
she doesn’t let him say
he loves her
Choice
As husband I am a story
But it hurts to be a story
So much of my life a given
It becomes invisible even to me
As husband I’m reliable, intelligent, decent
I can give her the world
Oh, let me be lover
exciting, intense, contradictory
As lover I am mystery
We’ll have to step into the unknown
As lover there’s the chance
that we can stop time
No matter I don’t want
her to think she knows me
but damn…
she’s so smart
And I’m so…
husband
Streamlined
I don’t remember much these days and I don’t care
People want a story that works for them
So who am I? I’m 28 and a teacher who can do it all
I’m 38—the Dad arms full of Christmas gifts
Different answers—oh, you bet—life stages and stories—flimsy
I’m 48 and the lover so giving I’m forever wonderful
This all almost too easy especially about love
But with the years love defies a story
Instead borne in single acts
What we do…not do each day
I make the morning coffee
She sets the plates
I pour the brew
She makes the scrambled eggs
Catch Me
On her New Year’s birthday she catches my age by one
Now, fourteen years younger and why should it mean so much?
On my bad days I feel I’m chasing a child
With my birthday—in September—I gain a year
The beauty is out with an older man
That maitre’ d who welcomes us
Can’t take his eyes off her
Then that glance at me—his silence says
What a catch old man—what do you have to offer
And I with a confidence brewed in a weak tea
Look away and say to myself
Let’s have dinner and get back home quick
Where in her bedroom
black and white photos of Yosemite
Nourish the silence and
I’m free to disappear within.
Love
At the Burger King the old man sits alone
All the customers drive in and out
Yes, he thinks, my time is past
The young don’t really listen
Takes himself home
to his love
He loves her because
an hour talk and time disappears
He loves that she says
during those talks she knows
that most of what he says is bullshit.
He loves that for most of his BS
she’s so good at pretending she’s listening
He loves her because she insists that
Navy beat Army in football this year
Loves that she thinks she is never wrong
He imagines being with someone
not nearly as sure of herself
and it frightens him
He loves that she is always ready to help
a friend, a neighbor, an old love
He thinks, I’m old and a love but senses
the ‘old love’ she tells him about is not him
Unlike the world, she’s tidy and neat
Always seems to be in place
He wonders that so often
she places herself beside him
He loves her because
she doesn’t let him say
he loves her
Choice
As husband I am a story
But it hurts to be a story
So much of my life a given
It becomes invisible even to me
As husband I’m reliable, intelligent, decent
I can give her the world
Oh, let me be lover
exciting, intense, contradictory
As lover I am mystery
We’ll have to step into the unknown
As lover there’s the chance
that we can stop time
No matter I don’t want
her to think she knows me
but damn…
she’s so smart
And I’m so…
husband