She will always love you.
And every day you will walk on knots of snow
as hard and unfortunate as knuckles
and the blistering cold will snake up your sleeves
and the sleep you didn’t clear from your eyes
will freeze
And you will push into your apartment from the cold
and the dusky yellow light from the naked bulb overhead
will settle on your shoulders
and something else:
:Your bed, as big as a desert, will yawn at your arrival
You think of those investigative reports
where they wave a black light over a hotel room
and you wonder what if memories fluoresced
You listen to the radio
you stay away from the windows
and you breathe more quickly
despite yourself
Then you are out in the cold again,
and you will hum old songs,
and the sun, promising warmth and giving none,
will stay in front of you,
and the snow will ball in the arches of your feet,
and you will not be still
Until you forget,
she will always love you.
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Wonderful first two stanzas...your language is right on the money. I feel the third throws it off a little, but maybe that's the point.
ReplyDeleteFrom there, great: 'fluorescent memories' are the coolest concept I've heard in a long time. But again--it's the details that make it, especially with the snow (the knots and the knuckles and the balling in your feet), something I haven't experienced in a long time.