Alfalfa Sprouts
for Cynthia Sue Fisher

constant presence,
evoked by unbearable absence

why we must remain apart, without a word
worlds apart, walled apart
leaves me/has left me to wonder/to wander

a cell membrane, no more, separated us once

kept together by sandwiches on Branola bread
alfalfa or bean sprouts, heaped upon them

sprouts we grew in darkness
in the cupboard beneath the sink

apartment we shared,
Benjamin Fitzgerald Carney’s, in Memphis

what a world we were at the heart of
we were part of

things she introduced me to,
took me to and took me through
took her to and through some things as well

encountered things together, novel to us two
policeman’s bright search light
in her car, in our faces

asleep in a parking lot, after sex
she across my lap, across my shoulders
where she’d collapsed

cop got us up
unable to get us apart, though he tried

her mother, Margaret, tried and did
wondering still, what she used
what crow bar, what wrench, what tool

after three decades I think,
might she have gotten pregnant
might she have a child, our child

some extreme required to explain
what was a sudden break, a sudden change

a shift in the weather, in the wind

what could have swept her away
taken her away without a word

as far as darkest night is
from brightest day


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
5:59 p.m. 23.03.08