what endures and what perishes

the eternal question among all of us


but what does live will show us so

what does come and what does go


and if it looks not unfamiliar to us

we must have seen it somewhere


when we valued more than we thought

the bright and the enduring






Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

pieces we will try to match and patch together


we may mend the whole thing nicely

or we make create a new fiasco

in the name of our self-deliveries


I will if I can leave your work unsigned








Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

face reality

and learn that

you are a character

in the dream of a god

and you no more

or no less exist

the way you and

Popeye Smellowitz do










Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

you won't come out of this range

until the cold pale twilight glimmers

over the river and for today at least

you'll have forgotten your small shame

and remembered yourself in the glory

of the silhouettes of fading light and falling night












Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

life is pain

a framing device

to direct our minds

toward forgiven

and become a flowing of

blessings on hates

that have at last disappeared


or to direct our minds

toward the impossible hater

who may never learn

what it is to forget or to heal

but will ever be ready to destroy

whom he wishes knowing only

the pain he makes into life







Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milio.

angry as I go

I face the same idiots

who never seem to get it


yes you mean well

and yes you mean nothing

and there's no one stupid enough


to deal with you

yet another one who means to be the death of me













Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.

oh talk as much and as knowledgeably

as you need to hear yourself

as you ruin your own salvation

by a mistaken choice of action

that did not understand the imperviousness

of trying a deity's demand for peace

that none of us will manage look before

you've faced some of the impossible realities awaiting







Content (c) 2008-2016 Philip Milito.