divide

it has been a long time
since i have come back to the table
and back to you.

we have been severed,
a nation divided between
lack of hours,
pertinent deeds that demand
completion,
mornings that refuse to stay
sleeping.

it seems there's never enough time
in the day
to get done what i wanted.
[even if that includes soaking
in this conditioned-air
for a good hour or so]

i have given you my favorite song;
though i know you still don't
know the words
it's melody has crushed through walls
of absence.

there are poems compressed into
my body,
stories now caught and jammed
under doorways,
crammed into the halls.

i need to expand,
wingspan cramped;
i need the space
of a thousand lives,

or just one.