Companions

I like that your eyes have seen suffering

you have been given a lovely face 

all Anglo-Saxon rugged angles

and normally I would hold that against you

along with the attitude of machismo

but you have the look of a greyhound 

who was forced to run for our amusement 

and is only now learning to go up the steps

and into the house

and for that I’ll forgive you the braggadocio.

My grandfather also had blue eyes 

that sparked with mischief 

but he lacked the irony

the dark humor, the self-deprecation 

and those are the qualities that I feel a kinship with

also I love a man with disguises 

because I like people to have layers 

formed like sediment from experience 

precipitating from the grind of days.

There is a way of smiling that I know

throwing your pleasure into the teeth

of your enemies / of the gods

grinning through agony

through a maelstrom of feeling 

it leaves a mark

that each of us given this virtuosity 

these gifts, can recognize in another

should our paths cross

join me that we may battle together 

against the cruelties 

that we cannot understand 

and cannot empower to flourish.

I feel that you are another of us

that builds a dead man’s switch

into every device 

that laughs into the blackness 

where the void is waiting for us

so I hope we may be companions 

when we venture into the dark places of hopelessness

to fight it out until the last hour.