12/23/2011
Greetings at a Reunion Party
Hello, Romance, how you been lately?
In my travels I thought of you often.
Once, in far off lands, I was bubble gum,
My grape-flavored nature pure flirtation.
I snuck chewed pieces of myself
Around the world; stuck beneath park benches,
Pressed onto subway signs, flicked to city sidewalks,
Where they waited like purple benevolent ticks!
To affix magically to boot and sneaker soles,
Drop into children’s hair where they expanded magnificently
Like the light-letting throats of singing baby frogs,
Where they released subtle scents through the proper channels and
Used a good portion of the oxygen we all transform and finally
Remained to shed alchemical light
In the form of bubble flowers
Blooming in all your eyes,
Your blushed cheeks, far away.
Hi Loneliness, standing over here by the piano -
You are an ache’s song, you are the spaces
Between gathered keys and gathered guests,
You are my aunts and uncles
Asking if I’ve met anyone new.
Sometimes you remind me
My love is strong and deep and plenty,
And there really is nothing to worry about.
You’re a waitress, hours later,
In this empty restaurant, casting her heart out like a crisp, clean tablecloth,
Settling to rest -
Enough to love and never return,
To love is to never have left.
