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.
Copyright © Andrew Foreman | Year Posted 2014
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