Neil McKay's Shared Poems

In bed I am looking up at your face,
The size of Mt Rushmore from my sleepy perspective.
Let me scale your lips, hike your nostrils
To summit on your closed eyelid.
I had a hard start when I approached you,
But the climb got easier and now
My heartbeat is gaining momentum,
as I rappel back down to safety.

Will you belay me on my descent?
Heed my calls for slack?
My gear is manky but I have monkey toes.
I thought I was well within
The sphere of acceptable risk
When i began this climb,
But it is not a done deal,
and I won't call "safe,"
Until my feet touch dirt.

The stories will come out
When I have gone south
When you are pressed into remembering
Darling, please lie.

When a poet’s work is done, he dies
Like coho salmon. Like distant stars, like fruit flies
I didn’t mean for this to rhyme
But there's much to do in what's left of my time.

With no dog to walk,
With no cigarette to smoke,
I'm afraid I look foolish,
Standing alone on the sidewalk.

I've misplaced the fingernail clippers again.
I only use them over the bathroom sink.
I only keep them in the drawer.
There's no one here to borrow them.
No one to leave them in the living room,
Or the kitchen, or to pocket them
And never return them.

The annoying qualities of housemates
Remain behind like ghosts.
If only their lovely qualities remained as well.