Alan Davies

nothing is as worthless

for D (of all of them (of me                                             

nothing is as worthless
as what’s been spent
but not used

                    , honey

my skin is seeing the stars

it’s always the other way
not the way that we remember it at all

there’s always skin

                               we’re not listening

and then                                  and then again

                                        for all that
to be taken in

as common                as common riff-raff

and
to
be
                               to the unqualified end

slaughtering the dynamic
that ought to get things going
                    if aught won’t                         again

this is how we remember the slacker pants
the moon above                   a part of all that

last year’s memories are all a part of we
last year’s love its lovely lone           constraint

and then
it ends                  well                     then does it end
                     depends

slowly
we
are we

                     and that is the memory

the things we cannot do

          the things that have taken over from doing
the undone

it’s wrung
even from you
from we
                               but why this we with no me

it’s just the way it is
          the very thought of you without love

can it
                     be

let’s take responsibility for the past
for what cannot ever take responsibility for us
                               for what’s past

                     aw
                                          let’s let it pass

see you inflamed a thing upon a thing
                                                                                   my love

          as if only to get away with you
were something we could do

but

no

there’s little that can be do to undo the done

there’s little that can be done
                                                                to do
                                                    what cannot be done

it’s only energy decay
                               a flame                  a wasted flame
          in a flat featureless field               some day

but not for we

          was it                  were it                   will it be
                               that way
always

          stay
stay

                               conflate yourself with we
some day
upon a lone beach in nothing much of a shack
with driftwood sculpted on the shore
and seaweed for breakfast every day

                                                                                 may
contrary
                    but energy is energy that way

leave we

not alone
          as we

let that not depend
                                                  for there is energy
in an unlocked key

all in a day

                    but momentless
                               bottomless
                                          and without a we
what

that

                    then is we
                               that
          then
                                                      is that we

from now to

                                          sloped
spinning round in my brain
                                                      again

you yield to we head
in the thicker part of the thicker tube
          remember

is just searching
for what
is
not
there

                                          anyway

let what’s temperate as temperature rise

let the single thing that thinks be that thing

let the moment rise

let the past also arise
                                          as it were
                                                              as a thing in disguise

let the moment arise

let the future then be the sky
                               in this restless dance

remembering you
all falters
                               away
          again

as it should
as it should
as it should again

                                          love you

so supreme

                    so sweltered
so small
so smallish
                    the smallishest of the ones
          anywhere
                               in between

you there
gasping
upon the sea
of we past

                    but no
                                                      is no like that
                                          is it
                                                                         a last
bring you down to the memory
oh A you said
                    and it struck we like this gong

the knowledge of what’s been
is always the knowledge of what’s gone

memory is an impertinence
a fact                               an impertinent fact
          that we have to face
until it’s gone                                 it’s never gone
                                        never one

we find you there
a place swept out of history
                                  like a tryst in a
                                                      in any song

a bird song

let’s say it lasted that long

                                          maybe not

courage is the part that time takes in this song

and courage it takes to sing it
                                   for very long
          or even for not that long
                                                                as time passes by
as time passes          itself by
leaving us                   the sad wake
of a nonexistent ship                    the gradual wake
of a funereal happenstance
                    (we all have our favorite words
such that that is that
                                  but not always that
                                                                                  why

a song
a dead song
a harbor song
a dead song upon the harbor
a dead song upon the harbor but not for long
a dead song upon the harbor but for how long
a dead song
a dead song
a dead song washing the harbor of dead song
a dead song
a mellow
a mellow
a mellow dead song
washing the harbor of the harbor for that long
for how long
a mellow
dead
song

but for how long

for you sweet one

let the wings make the wings fly

let the dead birds lie

let the moment be the moment of the sky

let the wings

let the wings

let the wings

touch the
this
sky

for only you are taken as the one upon the wings of this song
/ slackened / taken / put here / but for how / for this / long /
so / not to stay / not / not really to stay / it’s always that way /
that way / that way /

we think of you

that way                                             

 
 
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