Two Poems by Melissa Bentley

Escogiendo

Yo soy en Mexico
     y soy con mi
cabeza escogiendo lo que deseo hacer con toda mi vida y
     mi vida escogiendo lo que va a hacer conmigo,

The Eternal Struggle for Peace

I want to say something, but I'm not sure what it is.
     I'm going to Albuquerque; that's one thing.
I'm not giving up on us, am just calling a truce.
     Tell me about your own rose garden as you go alone. (Freudian     
     slip; was meant to be "as you go along.")
I don't love you. I've changed, too — and don't know how to relate the difference.
     Consider that we're hanging on to a pattern of misery, not to each other.
Forgive me. And do you see a point in keeping in touch - whereabouts, addresses?
     I fear forgetting about you, as I don't trust a future.
I am now in the present. My own fantasy world is real. I don't trust people.
     My decision is Albuquerque. We cannot be together now. What 
     did you mean?
My long letter to you I've discarded - lack of realness somehow.
It's your decision, man.