Numerous explanations

Numerous explanations                                                                  

I should’ve learned something by now –

how to proceed; which neighborhoods 

to avoid, the shortcuts home.

All that beauty crowded into one evening,

one body, one humble gesture 

and I’m thrown out-of-kilter, a grave man

tearful, wishing I might let someone know

but, You’ve seen to that –

there’s never anyone to tell;

like the lover’s lips sealed 

so as not to let the smoke escape.

There are numerous explanations for this –

there always are – and I tend to use them,

going down the list before succumbing

to the last checked-off square

and ending up alone in my bed

with a book of prayers, exhausted by my own

configurations and convolutions,

wondering why and how I’ve lived so long

and accumulated such precious little wisdom.

O child of God, where will you hide? Life is

so often too lonely or, too lovely to bear.