To break the chill of loneliness
She wrapped herself extrinsically
In social scenes of mild duress
And dates of rankest gaucherie –
‘To seek always’ – courageous stuff —
To settle is an abjectness:
What warmth she found was not enough
To break the chill
Of loneliness
she’s dressed up for a date
and wearing, pretty much, her heart;
a nervousness like none she’s
ever felt
then he arrives and sees her,
he’s got flowers in his hands,
she smiles, and her heart
and mine
both melt
Dating is a funny thing,
But wonderful when it goes right:
Together through Parisian streets,
Into oncoming night —
It takes connection. True, it does,
Which is as sweet as it is rare,
Then it won’t matter where you are,
Just really being
There
subtle brush of random breeze,
cicadas and choir frogs:
nowhere heard a traffic hum,
stars peek through the clouds
at the two in their unease,
sedative for kindling logs;
oh the passions of the numb,
torn from out
of shrouds
belonging.
the sad is search and
difficult with all of its
dramatics to turn oneself into a
prize it’s moral
acrobatics we love because
we love to love to need to feel
inside but all that ever was
and is is made of clove and
pride we string along our
platitudes we soon evince our
longing but souls are made of fragile
stuff and yearning for
We talked about the books she loved. And TV shows we both had watched, And as we walked the riverside We laughed about the jokes I'd botched She learned about my brother's life, I learned about her sister's -- We walked so long, I worried that We'd both end up with blisters. And there she was, so beautiful, Us just chatting with the setting sun, Her laughter down the river bank, Another autumn day was done -- I walked her to her place, and then She asked me in the door: And with the laughter of the day, She showed me what the night Was for
Dating:
It’s like an audition,
A final exam,
And a firing squad
All rolled into one
I took a date down to these waters
Many years ago;
To talk and watch the day go down
From light to indigo
And she was right next to me, I
Inhaled her with the air –
A scent I still remember
As though I was sitting there
And friends, among the many things
I know that I have lost;
The roads I will not find again,
The gone whose paths I’ve crossed
She sits inside me, always,
Ever beautiful, and one:
Amid palms & pavilion
At the setting of
The sun
= = = = =
Photo credit : © Erichinson | Dreamstime.com – Palms & Pavillion, Gulf Coast Photo
