I Understand the Animals Now, Frank O'Hara

I'd almost forgotten what we were like so many thens, so many "do ya remembers" ago the days fat with warm summer dripping off golden smiles melting like wax in the sun it was all just a race against time each tick a heartbeat lost each sunset crash'd like foaming waves but we had it down a rhythm method to laugh in the face of the moon tearing the days off cheap dime store calendars using Tuesday and Saturday to roll our stale cigarettes it seemed so simple then in my complicated now smiles + lingering touches + silica crusted toes = the sight of you in my peripheral vision forever but now an empty divot in the bed your perfume on a stranger walking past the formula unraveled for we made kingdoms from sand and sargasso terns our brave paladins wheeling gull the court's fool your hair my burnished pennant snapping in the breeze I never wanted the earth to turn cooling air can't turn to black as shadows fell upon your face and the sea stole our castle back.