LONGING

Childhood trains us/to expect the great ocean/of time around us, /endless, and always more/of it rolling in and away. /... There will always be/another and a next/and an after, even if we/are unable to know about it.---From “After After” by Hannah Stephenson, The Storialist, 07-21-11

LONGING 

After after, is there anything or anyone left

to sing the hammock songs? After after,

will you still be there waiting,  a warm blanket

in your hands, to throw the flannel on my lap, 

lest I drool myself to a sundown slumber

and promptly forget it gets cold in the winter? 

Aiee, amor mio, despues de nuestros amores,*

when love is gone, after all the countless days, 

where shall we find that place called after?

If it is lost, too, will there always be another? 

---Albert B. Casuga

07-21-11

*O, my beloved, after all our loves and loving,