A love like this too strong, I weak

A love like this too strong, I weak,
I seek
perfection in your purple skies
your liberty rising
a night with the death of
a prince
I came here seeking fortune
misfortune followed
me
nine eleven
crushed us
my spirit
not mushed as
faces of the missing
everywhere, my greenwich
village friends
a toast to those she knew,
the scent of death
an ashy reminder
for all I left,
a Love like this too strong,
no dad I don't want to go
Home
flags in my windows
cutoffs and u-turns and lost leaves
to tables
set
for one
many loves followed,
but you drew me near,
I learned up, down, east, west,
learned to travel the subway system
like an ecstatic rat,
asked Edward Burns a question
at Tribeca
kissed under the stars
on the Upper West Side,
bought date shoes at a cheap store
on Broadway,
then explained to a younger man
why I could look younger too in starlight.
A love like this too strong,
fifteen years,
and just as strong,
you split me
in two,
but I grew,
losing jobs and homes,
but gaining
friends.
Leaving Southhampton
met Huxley,
leaving work,
met Charlotte,
leaving my apartment,
Seth,
leaving my senses, Borys.
I know I will return,
just as I know
other people's definition of failure,
like that tired, 20th Century mailer,
can't define the now,
who I am, through all the pain,
the becoming-unglued,
the lost but found loves,
and the last cruise
out on the East River.
I know I came here
for a reason,
and it is reason
that makes me leave.
How I will miss you,
how I will cry
every night I see your skyline,
remembering how it once
wrote my byline.

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