1986 … eight years since ’78— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
and I wonder what I’ve learned since then.
Woman passing by, touching me
like spirit ghosts at some improbable dance.
Rose, stronger … needing me less, free
leaving me less room to hide in her love.
I’m so much on the brink of being alone and free
and so afraid of it.
I can see now how my mother fell into the bottle
and why Bhagwan says enlightenment comes
only when you’re driven to the bitter end
and have nothing more to drop.
You can’t go to that place and hedge your bets.
gallagher
6 feb 86
Archive for February, 1986
1986-02-06
Thursday, February 6th, 19861986-02-11
Tuesday, February 11th, 1986What are these faces we have— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
but the graven images of what went before.
Every face, every feature
of strength or beauty
reflects someone who survived
in the genetic pool.
We’re so many and so sanitary now
with our educations and mass media.
But then, during most of man’s growth,
men survived by strength and brutality
and woman by their sexual charms.
Tumbling fortunes on stages so small
that the next feudal estate was legendary.
From dark ages, lost dynasties,
and forgotten lovers
come our faces that have seen
and been much.
And we wear them
and think all that is lost.
gallagher
11 feb 86
Irvine
1986-02-19
Wednesday, February 19th, 1986December, January, and February— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
Someday, perhaps, she’ll be by
wanting to settle into the patterns
of this life.
Until then, she can never ‘just see me’.
It always has to ‘mean’ something,
be something, go somewhere.
I’m sorry, Kathy.
With you I’ve never understood why
just love and friendship weren’t enough.
So today, once again, we part.
We drop our sexual magic
and this friendship that tried
to transcend the years
and the marriages and the lovers.
gallagher
19 Feb 86
raining in Irvine and Hawiian gardens