don’t know how long
i shall awaken upon this earth
how many more steps
i shall walk in this world
how many mornings shall
greet me with glorious fury
or starry nights shall tickle
my fancy with wishes
if i can but once more
sit at the base of
the Rocky Mountains
and waggle my naked feet
and hands on pristine streams
i’d like to once again
see visions of the ocean's vastness
and their black of night
listen to the osprey and seagulls cawings
and the deep water fin fare
can i once more
touch the hand of naïve love
where only the gleam in the eyes
and that silent smile of desire
embracing two, yet,
uncontaminated hearts
listen to the violins
that Mozart commanded
titillating keys of Chopin and Liszt
voices of Lanza and Groban, Streisand
and Whitney, Nat King Cole and Vandross
inscribe on my epitaph some words
of Shakespeare, Shelley, Emily,
who would be read by passersby
and maybe by chance would look
upon my headstone and ask
'who was he and why'?
