Uncork Champagne
for D.B.A.

i.
where is here, where is now
I’d know when I see her
where and when we meet

moment and place that matters
that would be where it’s at

usually I am
hanging out with her pictures
she, with my poems

where her pictures, my poems cross
is certainly somewhere significant

but where and when we meet
that would be here, that would be now
that would be where it’s at

the present, a present
with her and me in it, as if wrapped in it

will she wear a bow
will a ribbon be around her

gift with her and me in it
in a dark box, until the lid is taken off

when the stone was rolled away
what light shone, what a new day

what and where is the present
I’ll know when she and I meet

where she and I met
where east and west cross
where wood pieces cross

our paths crossed
and my life changed
and her life changed
and the whole world changed

where will we roll it
like a bowling ball

will any pins be left standing
when the ball this world is
from her mind and my mind
from her hands and my hands
is released, and wham

and a forest of trees
are flat on the ground

flat on her back
on the floor of a forest

I looking at her
awaiting instructions

ii.
I am not good
with the time on the clock

forgive me, I never was
I never will be
rivers just run

clocks tick, bombs tick
snow falls, rain falls, waterfalls

to get into love
necessary similarly
to tumble down

like water, like snow,
like an avalanche

iii.
the intellectual and the body
the intellect and the body

which to address
which to undress

look down to see her
eyes fall from conversation
to what is made for clothes

without clothes, what where,
what here, what there

intellectually connected
eyes connect
I collect what I can
what eye can drink
what I can think up

I look down like a crime
I was committing

stealing sweets, stolen sweets
to unwrap

wrappers drop
mouth for sugar daddy
for candies, for toffee

bite or suck or chew or what
too eager, too greedy to decide

allowed a little
or allow myself a little

but a sip of what is so inebriating

drunk as well by conversation
in conversation, she’d laugh
but not out loud

covers her mouth with her hand
embarrassed is she
about emotions
about her body
about her intellect

I want to free her
pull the stopper out
let Champagne spout

iv.
I only didn’t get to wash
my entire back

washed where I could reach
above hips, over one shoulder
then over the next

truth be told,
I did not wash my neck

the rest of me though
head to toe,
visited with soap and water

too cold to do this
or to attempt to

in winter on New Providence
in my house, cold as a dungeon
in December, in January, in February

like a cat, I’ve been avoiding water
but out of the blue, a date
and guess who wit’

girl 18, a muse of mine
occasion to see her

not just pictures
not just online

meeting in person
beard had to go

I had to go into the water
and suffer, and tremble
and holler

v.
woman I came upon
Starbucks back room

words cannot do justice
cannot capture that moment

thought of knowing it was she
woman I was meeting

expected a child, becoming a woman
in flux, in transition

is she here, where is she
my eyes wandering

quick breathing,
heart beating, beating

feet searching
floor like a studio for ballet
pale wood pieces
fitted together

where could she be
where is she

she could not have/
would not have left
before I could board ship

she had to be here
be there, somewhere

back to me, before her
stretch of glass
out through which
you could see the harbor

could see tourists
could see ships
could see sea gulls

could this be the woman
the creature, the creation
I am here to see, I wondered

even though I have photographs
recent ones of her

I was unprepared for what I saw
her from behind, her hips in her jeans
contour of her anatomy

woman, her beauty
not easy to surpass

grapefruit tree, full of grapefruit
anyone of them, requiring two hands
to hold

have I become this fortunate
am I this rich

remember her now, younger
in a photograph, a series of them

of her upon the lap
of a young man in a car

only now am I able
to imagine the fun
he must have been having

how overjoyed he must have been
no more room, no more space

for more hips in front or back
of the car they were in

overjoyed that his lap
was where she ended up

her weight would be
even sweeter now

my lap the lap to take off from
to get to heaven


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
Written between 11:25 p.m.
Monday, 15.02.10 and
2:03 p.m. Wednesday
17.02.10