“You look like you’re in mourning”
He’s always saying things like that
As if 8am is the time to be cheery
As if black is dreary’s pride banner
And now I am in mourning
We’ve had that first exchange
The one that forces my hand
So I can’t take you seriously
At least until we meet tomorrow
By this coffee pot…
Lost you in some seedy bar
You know the one – red lights blinked
In time with our giggling. Gasps
Between your nihilism
And my sinking misery
Stealing Steve’s favorite whiskey
The one we couldn’t afford
Drunk on the heat of liquor
And the communion of souls
You just loved those driving gloves
The certain things
Grow like oaks
In spaces untended
Until, forced to notice,
We pause.
And enormity winks
She is her tenderness
Like that bubble in air
She blew so long ago
Quivering to alight
On an uncertain breeze
Where oxygen gets scarce
And thoughts become heady
And everything is hope
And chance is religion
Because bursting will come
But not before the flight
The tenuous dancing
Of the living and dead
In a single being
