IN THE GREAT POETRY ANTHOLOGY

If I have one shot at it, I want to give you my all.
It’s got to be more than filling in preferences,
That I’m worth the time I spent on earth,
Not filling a dating site to match the tall to the tall-
That I’m short, Wagnerian, and Khrishnamurti-ish.

How can I put it all in one song, one short ballad?
To sing of the wilderness, of cities and their tears,
The indescribable finality looking at the galaxies-
Praise she who shared my bed, dancing the years
As I played the dizzy bird of paradise...

Before I wear on your patience, I ask only this;
Do not judge me from these urgent words!
If this is all you ever get of me, in some anthology,
I need to feel you emphasize I lived in bliss;
I kissed the soil, ate the figs, flew like a bird.