Friday, September 16, 2011

Short and Sweet 'Cause It's Friday: "Still Here"



While I was busy creating diversions, some piece of brain lay awake at night like a cranky baby with melancolic, busy composing this.

Sometimes the anticipation of missing someone is worse than noticing they've gone.

Insomnia Postcard: Still Here

You have gone,
and will not miss me.
There are too many new pieces there
to puzzle together,
busying a mind.

I will not be behind that strange new leaf--
the light will dapple places
your feet have never touched,
and you will peer at your toes
at a new angle,
reexamining their oddness.

In moments you might miss me--
like in populated squares
where strangers' fingers weave together
like baskets,
Or glasses of red wine sit around
in lazy, bloody pairs--

You will discover a single dark braid
laid down a slim young woman's back,
and stare at it and wonder

what it would feel like
in your hand.

I will still be here,
where every curb is one already
stepped over with you,
and each street or mailbox
is a part
of a familiar, old routine--

The dog on the corner is vaguely imitating
one we walked together.

I will see naked light bulbs
and think not of fields, or toes,
but of your head, freshly shaven,
toasting in the sun.

I will discover new things also,
and feel them in my palm,
Then turn to show you
as if you were there
finding only,
after turning,
the place you usually sit.

7 comments:

  1. You have an interesting way of portraying with words what it is that keeps a memory alive - even if it is bittersweet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. it is as if you have been in my own closet of yesterdays, lady, where every curb is one already stepped over with him! beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. a "cranky baby with melancholic"? damn, girl, you didn't even need to write a poem after that turn of a phrase.

    glad you did though.

    jill
    http://inbedwithmarriedwomen.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh, the images you conjure up -- so familiar and so new ... Beautiful...

    ReplyDelete
  5. It looks as though you've defeated writer's block. It's beautiful, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I will not be behind that strange new leaf--
    the light will dapple places
    your feet have never touched,......

    a level of imagination few can touch

    ReplyDelete