Rainy July Saturday
for Sonia Farmer

you were an amoeba once
when the time that you have lived
commenced, the other end
of the spool of thread

going on still, not yet at an end
but it has its beginning

place when and where it started
fascinating how you've grown
what you've grown into

complex, mindboggling
how many million times
what an amoeba weighs

how much more complex and at once
as simple, as well fashioned,
as well functioning

animal with a nucleus, a food vacuole
we have a diet, an alimentary canal

body up against mine once, one rainy day
in the Mercedes, in the back seat

you and me and someone
you up against me

afterthought to slip in back with us
most convenient thing to do in the down pour
in deep water on Bay Street

boyfriend at the wheel, impatient it seemed
at how close we were, how close we seemed

close enough to argue, to be cross with you
you cross with me

then entirely unexpected
thrust up against each other

white as dough almost
yet not dough at all
but done and warm

like some treat, ready to eat, ready to bight into
or break off piece

I wanted piece of you that rainy day
wanted all of you

you returned after the rain that evening
I was reading, would not have missed it
for the world

there to listen, as determined as I was
not to miss it for the world

was that the evening I read
with Lynn and Helen


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
2:44 p.m. 22.11.09