DECEMBER 14

The anniversary
of a poet's last
parental storm
which drove him
to his cargo of relatives
where it was always
a Christmas party
on board in Long Beach
where he had a sailor suit
and was always forgiven
along a trail between daylight
and midnight
searching for sleeves
of tourist ships
barricaded only by fate
swayed by waves
lashed by time outs
with so many stops
on blind alley roads
covered with hilly bumps
that his motorcycle
heading to a reading
by Bukowski
is overshadowed
by reinvented  memory
thinking at least words
will not fail him.