4/29/94- Mile Marker

                                           4/29/94
                                     Beaumont, TX
                                     4:04am
 
                         Mile Marker
 
 It's as if the stories are true
 That love had taken on a physical pain
 In that I could not tell chronic from virus,
 Flesh from emotion
 
 And the Texans can have West Texas
 To do with what they wish
 They can keep their mile markers
 And the room for minds to wander
 Distance passes faster than the time
 
 The fear brings me closer
 Truer in a way that I cannot word or diagram
 As if I loved the same way for all times
 And am waiting to meet someone
 Who loves in the same language
 My dialect jumbled, my accent thick as adobe
 
 Still, the Texans can have West Texas
 To keep them big and empty
 As if on the map the scale had changed
 For self esteem and bragging rights
 To fill with longing in the night
 
 These feelings are infectious
 The virus spreads to other lobes
 When the focus of affection spills
 Into compassion's waiting hold
 I hold more people to my breast
 As if it would make up for the one
 
 Is to let go to hang on
 Or is to grasp to lose the point
 The fragile blown egg shell appreciated
 But not for a child's hands
 I see reflections of blond hair, short and young and free
 Can he be trusted with the treasures
 Or does he alone hold the key?
 
 
 The Texans fought for West Texas
 (or so I've always thought)
 There was much for them to fight for
 As the pavement again slowly proves
 They won it and they can have it
 Too much space for my mind to cross
 The Texans can have West Texas
 And you can always have my love.