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i guess i don't know
dance in the intimate shadows
kiss me like thursday has
a heartbeat
don't tell me about the usher
shining a light in your eyes
at the drive-in in ray brook
give me a sincere sigh
that you could never
explain the origins
better yet let me
earn that breathy
paraphrasing
that slips past your tonsils
that is all about
the conquest of excitement
in barnyard of trepidation
that sweet happiness slipping
from physical shading
in a charcoal drawing
of our intersection
before, when there was no future
the last poem was before
but let me add and end
with a musical number
from a concert in the park
with a happy meal innuendo
a romance refreshment
for a culinary soul
that is more tactile
and wrapped up
in your intrigue
where i could think
regardless of what happens
in the next three million minutes
standing next to you
at that moment and
for the time being
is all words
sly and charming
and they are sincere
because i have nothing to lose
you will go with your new boyfriend
but i will never have to give up
that surge of lustful adrenaline
when our shoulders bumped
and you were the most
beautiful girl in the adirondacks
not just because it was true, but
because i never had you to challenge it
i just had me, who could know everything
o that was a time....that was a treat
and too bad if i didn't know it then
i know it now and i hold it
like a collection of your kisses
pressed between wax paper in a folder
with a grateful dead sticker on the cover
i am so happy
because knowing you
allows me to accept
not knowing you
can never happen
i can't sit on the edge of this
i have to bounce out of my seat
i have to imagine what crawling
under the blankets to your thighs
must be like
it no longer matters the potential
i can accept not knowing some things
i can accept knowing
all i have is my imagination and
a color-coded map to your dance floor
i can know that this was the last poem
after the last poem i wrote 20 minutes ago
and i will never need to write another
which means one will find a way to me
that has your slightly crooked nose traced upon it
with your wisp of eyebrows arching over it
maybe it will be disguised as romance for another
but another will never know
just as no one knows where their romance
begins and ends
like mine may have begun as you
killed time with your nephew
while waiting for your romance
to leave his custody obligations
for all i know, i was on my way to
some mailing list myself
but your romance was swaying
through the dusk of a summer's eve
like a frog on a stick
and i owned that romance
or i believe i own it
and without question
i can continue to own it
i can write 200 more poems or none
that moment can't be captured with more poems
it doesn't matter
a full moon and ice cream and donnelly's
doesn't matter
three more periods and a comma don't matter
how well 14-year-olds can kiss doesn't matter
printing out words and mailing them to you
to a bevy of wondering romance
will not change what can't be changed
in a moment where all the trees in the woods
were falling and listening to the thud each made
like the plotting affection my thumper made
and now i am hurdling away from that moment
jumping over the souvenir of your slipped thoughts
that are like heartbeats in the woods that are the trees
i imagine toppling over with the cracking and snapping
of conspiring romance
but maybe two remain
they sway for a few moments
music plays
maybe they will have sex
maybe there will be a torrid little night
that is beyond their comprehension
maybe they will sample nuances
from a sexual menu
maybe they don't
but in that twinkle twilight
that moment of sway
is forever
