Peter A. Weinberg – Poetry

(inspired by Jacques Brel’s Voir un ami pleurer)

Of course, there are fierce wars
   far worse than the noxious violence here
Of course, there are the swank dressed brutes
   without music, huddled together in tribes
And money, of course, has little odor
   but stinks up the house, nevertheless
But to see her cry...

Of course, we lose everything, many times
   wretched defeats and then death at the end
Her body already leans that way now
   Amazed at herself, that she can still stand
Of course, there are unfaithful women and
   murdered birds with bruised wings fall
But to see her cry...

Of course, all our lovers just go away, and
   our times go too
The mirror is honest, spectral, dry
   We have neither the courage of their words
nor the grace she desires
   We want to burn clean but we melt like wax
But to see her cry...

-January 14, 2011-