SCRIBBLING SOLACE

I caress a hard pen tonight
    with these lonely thoughts
        until I feel the heat from it
            that I should feel from you.

Once lonely ones caressed
    parchment in quill strokes
        writing of their real needs
            that lovers arouse to today.

What is it that keeps us
    from some real caresses
        passionate nightly kisses
            real heat for each other?

How many of those poems
    of needs like mine tonight      
        never went past scribbling
            and were tossed to the fire?

(c) 2002 Rennie Lorca