Brave Words of Youth – 1996

the words of my first poems

held me in their serpentine grip

hypnotized

by their weaving

and swaying

under their influence 

as if in a drug induced state

the words and I would leap 

from tall buildings into the sky

and soar toward the sun

as often as not

 their wax wings

would melt in the heat

and with them

 I would come crashing down to earth