Dated 1994
Words etched across squares across time across memory
Found folded flat forgotten in between your letters
Where are you now I wonder aloud
Reading aloud the words you inspired
“lost in thought
we sit upon your bed
winter laughing at our dreams
you browse tropical vacations
hoping to feel sand rough between
your perfectly painted toes
i watch the way your eyes sparkle
leaving me longing to feel heat
much nearer to home
you remain oblivious
mumbling ‘thanks for dinner…’
as i leave to walk alone
back along the muddy river
flowing past your flat
cold dusk closing hard
i trail wispy white breath
gusting back the way i came
all alone the muddy river
flowing past your home
snow soft grey reminds me
of the blankets on your bed
warm smell of you between the weft
all along these muddy flats
flowing past your river
‘abandon all hope’
i wrote upon the shore
kicking my words onto the shards of ice
tiny cryptic muddy specks
flowing thoughts like a river
winter chortled once again
mocking any dreams of spring…”
**************
There is more. And yet there isn’t.
She travelled. I didn’t.
Later that year she married. And so it ends
“starlight, starbright
wish I maybe might
have these
wishes lost from sight
so it is
and so it ends
wishing wishing wishing
not just friends…”