renato mascardo

a paean to you

like Mame you coax the blues out of the horn
like Mame you charm the husk right off the corn
...

the yearning and the longing
the needing and the craving
unanswered and requiteless
i feel
...

let me not mar your leaving
with my commendable intent
let me not inflict on you pain
with an unwanted embrace
...

the bricks of the road
that you and i tread on
that time has yellowed
that despair has sallowed
...

over three hundred miles
separate me from you
tonight/ free of devoted demands
i lie in bed with solitude instead
...

hanging like crucified thieves on their tippy-toes
the yellow square signboards tilted askance
screamed in bold black words
Bridge May Freeze Before Road
...

pirouetting
with a playful breeze
the maple leaf plunges
slowly to its death
...

He looked at the road after stealing a glance at her
She looked straight ahead avoiding his eyes
It was a routine between them when
Driving home from Sharon
...

unmuffled
unconstrained
and unguarded
so sensual
...

i can’t make you happy
you alone can do it
i can not touch you
i will not hurt you
...

like a ghirardelli midnight reverie
when our senses meet
you leave me with a proper pain of taste
the ephemera of sweet replaced
...

together but not
hand in hand
you and i watched
between us
...

clear and
colorless this
distillate of feelings
locked in a lacrimal phial i
...

it reaches out in the beginning
before it recedes
this added dimension that intrudes
for the story grips
...

nearing
midnight the distractions of the day
slowly recede replaced by a silence dinning
in my ear of your absence a phantom limb
...

i could have phoned i know but i did not
i could have skyped or texted but decided not
instead these lines in my slanting cursive
halter the skelter of this headlong day and
...

grief is such a private moment
an intimacy of one
each loss is so unique
to try to console the other is to intrude
...

Romance
to you my friend is
a succession
of disappointed expectations
...

solitaire dinner set

a single napkin ring
a candle lit
...

you have to understand
you really have to ken
each time i touch your mind
you are grasping mine
...