For Anne Marie,
thanks
for the dance.
The Kiss
I swear it did,
it happened just this way
it was one of those nights,
ya know
where staying in, you couldn’t
because hearts sometimes
grow wings
where minds slumber
there’s that breeze
the one that plays like a dryer vent
to December’s cold hands
in a long ago alley
and smells like Mary Jo’s bakery
at first light.
pine cones become Dutch wind chimes
to irritated owls
and doves stay up later
than they should
first, you see the curtain ghost dancing
to the weathered sill
and television plays only
as a millstone about your neck
this is a night for jacket optional
and thoughts non-dimensional.
a night when old feelings run alongside
back-peddling,
remembering when
to a forgotten how
a night when you’re invisible
to harm
and dollar free
of the tax man.
I looked to the moon
and cried
she smiled and sidled back
to my follow.
on to the river she led
and there,
cared for me more
than ever a lady til then
had dared.
that’s why I cried
she willow bosomed me
hedgerow and treeline
and blued my hair
in loving kindness
So I followed
her reason to my tears.
at the river,
she trail glazed turquoise magic
and I swooned
to her dusky charm.
I walked that river,
I swear I did,
thigh deep
on layer of whiskey wishes
and long forgotten dreams.
Not Jesus deep
as Lord
nor Hoffa deep
as scoundrel.
but the sweet deep
she gave to me.
then, and here’s the twist,
I raised my arms to her
and bore me to her,
she did
a marble blue gumdrop
I wrapped my arms about
as she cradled my legs.
she took me to the heavens
and shored me up
feather bed upon Jupiter’s layers
we spun, and laughed
to London in fetters of fog
and New York
deep-fried in conceit
when we skip rocked
an ocean
kicking at sails
just beyond my reach
she pretended to drop me
but love never let’s go
-not all the way
and we both smiled.
she brought me
then home
as had to she did
and we sat to a river bank
while her eyes told me, what my heart
had already known;
she couldn’t stay
and I couldn’t go
.
this was real,
but magic real
and time exposes the trick
and who of you
would believe me?
or the thousand fox of Samson?
or Neptune’s breath?
Or seas, parted for the destruction
of armies on wheels?
If I tell you
a boy killed twenty-three
this you believe.
if I tell you
the magic of a kiss
this you doubt.
funny things,
us.
~rick
I swear it did,
it happened just this way
it was one of those nights,
ya know
where staying in, you couldn’t
because hearts sometimes
grow wings
where minds slumber
there’s that breeze
the one that plays like a dryer vent
to December’s cold hands
in a long ago alley
and smells like Mary Jo’s bakery
at first light.
pine cones become Dutch wind chimes
to irritated owls
and doves stay up later
than they should
first, you see the curtain ghost dancing
to the weathered sill
and television plays only
as a millstone about your neck
this is a night for jacket optional
and thoughts non-dimensional.
a night when old feelings run alongside
back-peddling,
remembering when
to a forgotten how
a night when you’re invisible
to harm
and dollar free
of the tax man.
I looked to the moon
and cried
she smiled and sidled back
to my follow.
on to the river she led
and there,
cared for me more
than ever a lady til then
had dared.
that’s why I cried
she willow bosomed me
hedgerow and treeline
and blued my hair
in loving kindness
So I followed
her reason to my tears.
at the river,
she trail glazed turquoise magic
and I swooned
to her dusky charm.
I walked that river,
I swear I did,
thigh deep
on layer of whiskey wishes
and long forgotten dreams.
Not Jesus deep
as Lord
nor Hoffa deep
as scoundrel.
but the sweet deep
she gave to me.
then, and here’s the twist,
I raised my arms to her
and bore me to her,
she did
a marble blue gumdrop
I wrapped my arms about
as she cradled my legs.
she took me to the heavens
and shored me up
feather bed upon Jupiter’s layers
we spun, and laughed
to London in fetters of fog
and New York
deep-fried in conceit
when we skip rocked
an ocean
kicking at sails
just beyond my reach
she pretended to drop me
but love never let’s go
-not all the way
and we both smiled.
she brought me
then home
as had to she did
and we sat to a river bank
while her eyes told me, what my heart
had already known;
she couldn’t stay
and I couldn’t go
.
this was real,
but magic real
and time exposes the trick
and who of you
would believe me?
or the thousand fox of Samson?
or Neptune’s breath?
Or seas, parted for the destruction
of armies on wheels?
If I tell you
a boy killed twenty-three
this you believe.
if I tell you
the magic of a kiss
this you doubt.
funny things,
us.
~rick
