Medinah's Circle
A CFO chased cheaper resumes
into my severance of free days.
Safe in winter with my kids and Blue’s Clues,
til Spring brought out the perks of community dues.
Dawned smiles a first morning’s remark
nurtured those long talks into the dark.
Days pushed strollers on pathways to
lunch dates from sidewalk chalk roses.
Giggles, Hot Girl, and Tail Feather ringed by Ken.
You brought them to us and a nick I would give them.
Our neighborhood scripted a soap opera –
auditions to the applause of butterfly wings.
A soft breeze across your face,
around your neck & down your back.
Those best words not spoken, to sit,
to patiently listen, was the aphrodisiac.
Not quite crime scene technicians,
but magicians, with a sleight of foot
over one forgotten Trojan wrapper.
Broken marriages hosted deck parties –
surrogate spouses filled swimming pools,
as hope tuned dreams and made love to sunsets.
Drunk on new, need gave temptation Cupid’s arrows,
smothered guilt’s cry with the pillows of our beds.
A summer of secrets damned rumors that made us all liars,
as children danced to the last ice cream truck melody.
Autumn’s slow kiss took a ransom of leaves from every tree,
shared blankets with afternoon movies,
and laid lace among ribbons in your scrapbook albums.
Just beyond left field, a store run’s moonlight,
stenciled tree limbs on dashboards
when the next morning was too long to wait.
Halloween’s candies filled lines of cars, reflected
quick glances while spouses handed out chocolate bars.
At bedtimes, Robert’s “Sad Eyes” to kids I would sing,
but really to us in what the coming winter would bring.
By chance or retribution, unrequited arrows
pinned our arms around mirages.
Choked on mortars of blood and sand,
squeezed clots of distilled pain,
dripped accelerants in flash point solutions –
we all burned down our own houses.
Old vows came back to amend
the suspicions that found everyone new homes,
and made miles the walls from my best friend.
Divine whispers of my reprimand,
pressed a year & the balance of a lifetime,
into the last hug goodbye –
steadies the pulse of a remnant
that keeps any reprieve from time’s hand.
Thirteen years in five moves elsewhere,
but my greatest sins and loves, still live there.
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Dedicated to an old friend, and to the only year I can’t keep buried.
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Copyright ©
Rob Carmack
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