In The Storm - Draft One

Jennifer, welcome to the storm.

Why did you think we were so rich
When I drove you to real mansions?
What was it like to be tied and beaten?
To be choked? To be proposed to.
To be loved. I feel your hand in mine.
Sit again on your stoop, with that cigarette
Glowing under the moon.

Melissa, hold the mainsail.

And make love with me under the stars
Out in California, and in that large bed
Inside plate glass, and why didn't I
Know that the one you will have
You will have, and the one you won't, you won't.
It was not the time, I beg your pardon
For that error.

Kim, steer this vessel.

Kim, in 100 motels, in sailboats.
All through the country. Kim
Mother of my children. Kim, savage and
Tender and light years from me
Kim whom I never knew, who made
Men groan when she entered a room.

Malia, swim in the frothing sea.

And look at us through a child's green eyes
Alongside my infinite ignorance lay some
Some sort of compassion, for the thrashing
Of a deafmute and his blind lover.
Animals tied to one another, we could
Not help but exchange cruelty, and
We regret it.

Paula, lie ill below decks.

You magician. To fuck you was to fuck
9 women at once, a coalition.
I still hear their voices - all of them.
You moved me in, you removed me.
Just as sometimes a man may glimpse
Through an unintentionally open
Door : a life destined for another.
But I still burn for you.

Elisabeth, keep watch.

On the prow, and see where We
Are going. Come stand beside me
Near my chair, when the evening falls.
Walk with me, by the shore.
Let's swing our legs under the dock, sitting
On old rough wood, and watch.
The sun setting. At night our bodies
Will sing together in the stars.
I'll see you over on the opposite shore.

Yes, friends, all friends.
Love for some is a harbor,
For some, an ocean
For some, a storm.

I wait for the one who will stand by me at the helm.
All the way through.