Timid text message, I crept into the place
Wondering how awkward I was about to make your life
A friendly touch, that place where I’m ticklish
Sunny greeting, warmer than last weekend
Our conversation began the way it always does
School, work, music, theater, soccer, hooping
Moving
Public venue, smells of sawdust, ringing ears
Corner bar, drinks on me, chasing one another
Your car, the one I wrote that song about,
Thinking you’d never in a lifetime hear it
Until I sang it drunkenly, but still—you noticed
Call me out, we can laugh about that now
Surrounded by friends, yours, maybe mine
Darcie, dying to know the girl whose leg his hand rests upon
Submerged in color, sound, and you
Smoky blue-green glaze, my old vice
Wide, unsecured, water-warped floorboards
Carpeted stairs, the traffic-worn way, smooth under bare feet
Four walls, three months in between
Two memories needing no refreshment, one swift gesture
Awakening to the unknown and the fondly recalled,
Desperately trying to savor those too-soon sinking seconds
Supported by your hands, singing my incorporeal reality
Not much use for the concept of god, thanking it anyway,
To no one’s credit but yours, my friend
A crippling, ethereal moment of delirium
Unity with the face of refusal, detached tenderness
And sleep, my sweet-tempered, agile associate
Two familiar shoulderblades, exposed and white
Breathing, pull me near, that I might, for a moment
Erase from my attention the days that will pass
Before the pads of your fingers trace the line of my soul again
Burn the bacon, turn on sports, make me smile
Simple start to a simple charade,
“He’s not my b—” I tried to protest when she asked my name
Wonder what Boswell will be saying Monday morning,
But I didn’t stand a chance through all that make-up
There’s formality in leaving, you’ve taught me that, too
And in introduction; Jacob, meet my bed-headed hippie friend,
She hides naked behind trees, waving at you
Because you are the sine qua non to her rapture
Kiss me goodbye in front of your friend, a bold surprise
But one I cannot read into, we’ve been here before
Come to think of it, we’ll be here again, too
We both know, so we are both careful
Until, again, our lungs fill with one another
I’ll catch you around.
