LONGING STAINS The surface can change, get brighter some days But there's always a thing on a lower level Untainted by the painting of the better and new Longing and needing It doesn't recede And it lurks and lingers, stays on underneath, Needing for it to be, having to be, okay to need Idle sometimes, still never dead enough There's something about a shadow that doesn't care about light And there's something about a double that hasn't been met Little bird can sing all day and be glad Doesn't mean he isn't tethered by the response he once got Or heard the first note of, relayed, never got Hours can change, Overshadow each other, a night make a spoiling morning pass, But the click of 11:11 uncluck is like the stab of a fork in a second hand's thumb And the shape of bad air can come back again, Once unstrung or unformed, back, belonging again Written in 2006.