Poem for Monday, January 21, 2013

Apogee

We are at some grocery store, and I suddenly want to express
so many things.

Billie Holiday's "I'll Get By" melts out of
a dust-caked speaker nesting where wall meets ceiling.
With each strike of the piano, you drop a frozen dinner
into the shopping cart. Do you notice

our love, hidden among the stacks of mangoes?


* * *


We are at some post office, and I suddenly want to express
so many things.

Encased in glass is a set of stamps
featuring figures from Greek mythology. Helen is only a
square inch in size but gorgeous enough to redden
the Aegean. Our zip code

is lost among the smells of mail, ink, your hair.


* * *


We are at some coin laundry, and I suddenly want to express
so many things.

The Kenmore clunker rumbles under
your thighs while you finger an outdated Vanity Fair.
It takes more than two quarters in a slot to wash away
our mistakes. But the stains and spills

of yesteryear are expunged from this fabric and

We are on some moon now, far away from the sun,
           the color of jaundice,
           time a lost concept,
           I am a fatalist,
           you in a summer dress,
           and I suddenly want to express
so many things.