Red White Yellow Blue
for Nacoya Ingraham

must we not both add
20 million or more years
to your 20, to my 54

age of the stuff, of the substance
of which and from which
we were made

what a difference a decade,
a day makes

what if life ended tonight
or tomorrow

what if your time or mine
came a week ago

that we are here though
means God has reasons, plans
work to be done

our four hands, four arms
four feet, four legs
twenty fingers, twenty toes
our two hearts, four lungs

what has he in store
for our navels, four lips
four eyes, our teeth

how many have I, have we

you are so young and fresh
fresh ideas, fresh mind

as modern as the latest ideas
have I grown old

tied to the computer,
your language and mine
vary slightly

get our messages across
however wide the divide

impasse to cross,
I’d lay my body down
for you to walk it
like a bridge

“Julia,” film of two friends,
not even a world war
able to separate

what love able to withstand
what will ours undergo, over come
on the way to town
to immortality

need links made of precious metal
which will not tarnish
which will not break

where will this vehicle
we’re entering take us
how far and how swiftly

nine months and two week left
of your teens

you must not waste these
or rush to be done with them
gone, they’ll not come back

let me see what I can do
to make your teen years last

made one poem of you,
spirited as a lamb or kid
exciting to be near, to watch

let me look at you
like lightning, lick at you
write more, adore divine

what makes God
the friend to have
old, old, old and so very modern
as in the moment
as anyone can be

why am I considered old
to be taken off the shelf
to be shoved off the stage

my time is now
alive in ways I only am
because of you

similarly, do I not also
bring a charge
electric surge of life,
occurring since we met,
when we meet

in a dish of depression
when I long to see you
when I cannot

sick for want of you
for what seems like a century
since September, 2006

how warm you make winter
February, you in my senses

what a complete man
how complete I am


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
11:54 p.m. 04.02.08