Lovesick
Barry Basden, August 2009
I sat on the edge of the tub and
watched my new wife bathe.
I was her second husband,
needing to feel closer.
I touched her knee.
“I want to know everything about you.”
She lay back and
candlelight flickered,
reflecting off her breasts.
She looked into my eyes.
“You never will.”
And I never did.
Flights Not Taken
Barry Basden, August 2009
I come to poetry late,
face it, an old man now,
after a lifetime of counting
trivial things that have
bought only the unsatisfying
comforts of trivial things.
Like an old fighter pilot,
I dream again of the glory
of youthful flight, when life
was intense, a matter of
boldness and sharp wits up in
the cold clear skies, and I
wish, with certain longing and
regret, I had joined the
poetry Aces, those masters
of rarified air, wanting
words to lift and carry me
off into some wild blue yonder.
Barry Basden writes mostly short pieces these days. Some have been published in various online venues. Some have not. He is also coauthor of CRACK! AND THUMP: WITH A COMBAT INFANTRY OFFICER IN WORLD WAR II, and edits Camroc Press Review, online at www.camrocpressreview.com
