The Poems of Dorien Grey by Roger Margason

From Dorien Grey's chapbook of poems. He hopes with this chapbook of poetry to share with you, the reader, not only his own experiences and views, but to touch chords of memory and empathy within yourself. And just as Dorien is part of his originator, Dorien hopes that you might come away from these poems feeling as though you are a part of him. This particular poem is dedicated to his partner, Ray, who died of alcoholism-induced AIDS in 1994.



The Poems of Dorien Grey
GLB Publishers (2002)
ebook



Playmates
(for Ray)

My heart is a toybox,
too eagerly shared.
It holds a random collection
of toy-soldier-brave hopes
and once fire-engine-bright dreams
with the paint chipped off,
and the fragile shells of unfulfilled wishes
which, when held to the ear,
echo the sea-sounds of my soul..

I've offered my toys to many.
"They're ugly!" I've been told--
though to me, because they are mine,
they are precious.
I could never understand
why others did not find them so.
And frightened and alone,
I'd go on to the next.

And then you stumbled into my life,
little-boy kind,
with your own little box of toys
even more battered than my own.
Shy, we spread our toys on the ground;
and each saw in the other's joys
wondrous bits and pieces and sparkly things
that we could use to build a wall
against the world.

But because we are sometimes frightened,
and because we do not always see
the same things in the same way,
we each may be tempted
to pick up our toys and move on--
even knowing that what we have together
will probably never happen
in all the rest of our lives.

So let us sit together,
and play.
Not just for a while,
but until it is time
for us to go.

http://www.glbpubs.com