Let A Smile Be

I took my old smile
out of a drawer,
pasted it back
where it used to be,
and went downstairs
and out the door,
into the world
where smiles mattered.

The bluff worked.
It usually does,
but wears you down.
The smile must
be put away
to give the face
a chance to breathe
in the air
of other things,
and be more like
what nature and life
has shaped it to be.

  Joseph Farley__

For An Old Relationship

You happened.
Then I happened.
Then something happened
between us.
Unfortunate, maybe
a mistake,
but it occurred.
Now you’re there
and I’m here,
and it all seems
so much better this way,
a happy accident,
except for
the broken bones,
the dents in the car,
and all the psychiatrist bills.

  Joseph Farley__

This is True

I have not told
enough lies today,
so I must add
just one more.
I could speak of love
or a silver moon
or the mysteries
of life and death,
but you’d see through
any of that.
You’ve heard it all before.
I give you credit,
and promise to work hard
to come up with
a better act
of blasphemy.
Just let me stare
in the mirror a while.
Plenty of falsehood there.
If you’re patient
I will find it.
A lie worth waiting for.

  Joseph Farley__

A bit of this, a bit of that

Pardon me, but I must steal
a little bit of this day
and you in it
to feed this addiction
that plagues me.

Night, when others sleep,
and I must write
about those things,
pieces of lives
collected through the day,
mold them into
something else,
not a picture,
not a recording,
something new,
but ancient
and as difficult
to understand
as marks made
on stones found
beneath burning sands.

  Joseph Farley__