He writes for a fallen angel
but the rhymes don’t appear,
not in words, but in stilted
verse, in outpourings of
watered down love. She spreads
her wings and hunts the night.
What the poet will not write is,
You hunger for your father’s love;
It never was, but may you find
through the spilling of my ink
Some noble affection upon
which to rest.
But I cannot touch your pain.
He drinks a toast
to the memory of her beauty.
No one wants her faded
charms this night. She stands
beneath a waning moon
with a single tear, a cigarette
from her too red un-kissed lips.
The cars no longer slow
down to guess her meaning.
She traces a vein
to where the needles brought
peace a million times.
I hear your poem, she whispers,
thank you
but I must be home to
where the razor whispers.
The Winter Bites My Bones 
Incredible! Makes me love her, want to hold her as a friend. I think many of us girls could be “Fallen Angels” if certain things in life came out one way instead of another.
I’m lucky to have had a great family and will (unless conditions in life severely change) never have to turn to selling things that should never have to be sold.
Made me think about women who life has been too harsh to, those that have become lost.
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In my “dark” years, I knew many “fallen angels” (and no, not so much as paid company but as young woman who were a condition of the world I walked in” My heart always went out to them…when I speak of “I cannot touch your pain” it was my way of saying…I won’t sleep with you and contribute to your pain” I wanted to save so many, and some became friends, but you can really only save yourself, I and simply watched, in pain, as the promise of their lives melted in the rain.
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I can understand all that. It’s painful to see, but it’s life and you have made a huge gesture with this poem.
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Such pain of longing to help, very moving. even in your comments you are creative with your words
‘“I cannot touch your pain” it was my way of saying…I won’t sleep with you and contribute to your pain” I wanted to save so many, and some became friends, but you can really only save yourself, I and simply watched, in pain, as the promise of their lives melted in the rain.’
That last line could easily be part of a poem. So sad that there are any fallen angels.
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This is heartbreakingly beautiful! Your words made me cry. Thank you Dennis!
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I am comforted that you were here for me to share this. You are a dear, dear friend and only you can understand the depth of pain this brings. You lift me up.
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