like seagrass in coral biscayne like pipefish
like a plow through blue louisiana mud like green
parted water like lobster in circumspect maine
your eyes reflect the flight of an osprey
like magpies we travel in pairs
along a horse pasture in light of day
like a crumbling rock wall in apple country
your smile comes back to me
you are an acre of spartina grass
how green you look against yellow dunes
like sand tumbling against sand
you were driving the cape that summer
your parents were in chicago
you visited me with your brother
and then you visited me alone --
your shoulders already tanner than mine
your shrimp boats and box turtlres
your face turned toward me, lips parted --
and i took your love like a car takes a wrong turn
on a highway and oh! i fell into your harbor
i stretched myself across your river
like an iron chain stretches across the hudson
i built an oakwood fire in your name
i spilled wine on your leisurely carpet
i took your love like a ropeswing
takes a boy beyond himself --
i tied myself to a tree
i shot myself with arrows
i waited for you like a musician
i swung from a noose, i bit your hair
like a mouse in your bandana
like a cockroach in suburban boston --
you were a deck of tarot cards
and i suppose i was played on
like a picnic table
like an ice skating rink
like a fast game of checkers
you and your dog nosing around the woods
('i think he smells a weasel!' you said)
your overcoat buttoned up to your cheeks
against the gloomy twilight of snow
you with your wet bathing suit
down around your knees
you in your deep ski parka
with the lift tickets everywhere
and me paralyzed with wanting you --
you were sparrow warfare
you were chairman mao and me?
i was the befuddled american
i was stupid i was a gust of wind
in your block island spinnaker
you were gone like chuck berry
and now i just want to say this:
you may hide out in your cornfield of shame
you may cover your eyes when porchlights come on
and your parents asking a lot of questions
you may avoid me on tobacco roads
but you are on an airplane with me
we are winging our way west
you are in a dodge with me
and i am alongside you and life
without each other is unimaginable
you are not elsewhere and i am not here
and oh! how will you ever know
how much i love you
and how a simple thing like a kiss
continues to haunt me
like seagrass in coral biscayne
like pipefish like a plow
through blue louisiana mud
like green parted water -- like lobster
in circumspect maine


�2007 by George Wallace