Poetry by Charlie Zender

1

Aftermath of Broken Promises
Why do we vow? I feast on words like juicy veal prepared despite all sanction. Satisfy this appetite for richly dressed emotion-- Cabernet Flattery, gentle praise, even cheap affection Indulge my vanity with every phrase you cook, I will fill your ear with sweet bonbon ingredients Collected in suburban cafes, therapy on plush couches. Intoxicating words I pray will illuminate our opaque fate. Life will be like travel decor: serene posters, exotic. I promise balmy breezes will caress our glassed enclosure! Truth I want? or medicine? Do untrue words provoke tachycardia? Perched from danger, lulled and safe, I vow, I vow, I vow. Syncopate the chant of life! Respond, respond, respond. Conjugal rites complete the beat, veins pump united; Saturated crimson couple twine our dizzy drunken organs. Consummate, our formless hearts launch a wordless promise Into solid-looking shifting sands of still unheard intentions.

Cadaqu´s, Catalonia, Spain, and New York City, New York e April­May, 2004