About to Cross the Street
for C.B.

i.
deeply affected, deepest affection

something in an instant for her to write on
scribble down address

friends to let into her car
in the parking lot, across Bay St.

blue button on her key chain to press
to admit them
while she and I connect

a minute or two together
to enter into history
locked in time ticking, inextricably

fleshy like peach, enough to fill two arms
not just the palm of a hand

squeeze a new-found friendship
see if it's ripe, ready for picking
hunger for it

she too has a healthy appetite
for poets and songs

ii.
someone to save my life tonight
or I'd sink out of sight

quick silver, quick sand

armed with each other
against loneliness, lonely nights

after encounter, left with her to think on
to dream up, to dream on

bouquet of marijuana everywhere about us

encountering her, enabling me
to walk on water, walk on air

wine or weed, unavailable to me
falling in love my only option

unable to return to addictions
those wives and I, long ago divorced

get high, get lost in innocence, in beauty

body to embrace, squeeze to mine, to me
I believe in what sustains me

rigor instead of rigor mortis
so many dead men walking
imagine they're alive

mixing grass with air
grass to fill pipes with

want her in my waterbed
hovering over me bare

iii.
something to grip and to grip me
or someone to

someone who'd be warm to hold
wonderful to behold, to be with

withheld from me for some reason
until now, until I learned patience
built character, until I myself was formed

fetuses in the womb, embracing
though under water, in order not to drown

someone to breathe with, to breed with
take a deep breath, come up for air

what a field of flowers
Orwell gives us to swallow, to fill our senses

about to cross the road and I accost her
in the nick of time, connected

found a new lifeline
when we could have drifted
two ships upon the waves

these lines I write and let out
I can pull in
until she's up against me bare

body in the bath, on the toilet, in a scale
exactly what I ordered

in dreams, in the market place
in a single state


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
2:15 a.m. 04.12.08