EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER (1998)
National Library of Poetry, U.S.A.

Last night I saw  
... an image of compulsive obsession
A marvel of life’s disarming weaponry  
... so haunting, so credible, so utterly terrifying
I saw fire in her eyes … speaking volumes without a voice

From the warped precincts of my hermitage,
... I strained to hear
She said, reach … just reach
Out of the rank luxuriance of a liberated passion … 
I think, jagged ironies 
Me, a life-time away from virility … 
... could this be love I am feeling?

About this callous reality, I make no fuss …
... but about passions and seductions, misplaced, I shall speak
And the woes of my amputated member, I shall tell
But who can understand …
... the anguish of an amputated mind? 


* Published in the 1998 anthology: Sounds of Silence