SINCE I KNOW

Since I also know
of your loneliness
reaching a life span
of griefs and unbelief
in black and blue
each stalking lilac
needs no back locks
on a doorway
by the first floor,
as we call on Whitman
in the Civil War
to walk by the sick bed
of a wounded veteran
with thick invitations
on the red hope chest
with poppies and carnations
it is as we suspected,
love will outlive the dead
now Whitman's poetry rested on
a literary perspective above
this wine and bread
at this miracle of December
when it starts to snow
yet there is a last geranium
seen in contrary shadows
we remember the passing sun
on the corner windowsill
for another new arrival
Walt reciting a jovial parable
from "Leaves of Grass"
without a brotherly fault
spilling out his hardy words
as a skillful bard
will outshout us
in an hourly span
as he watches to feed
a flock of sky birds
not thinking of
his own survival needs.