Grape Skins & Rose Petals
for D.B.A.

at cousin Jack's funeral
I am thinking of you

the choir was singing
I was thinking of you

I was feeling happy
and thinking of you

the pastor is preaching
or is warming up to
and I am thinking of you

what is this that I am afflicted with
what is it that I gat

what doctor to take a bit of blood
to examine it, examine me

this to infect a nation, a people
epidemic of happiness

is that why I put you and me in poems
is ink the thing to translate, to transmit
to convey to all the world
what a difference meeting you has made

I am not the same, the world and you and I
are changed, were changed

when eye opened and you entered
when you got into the pen in my hand

into the ink in my pen
into the blood in arteries and veins
into the life inside me

petals of roses to dye rose-red
a veil for you

grape skins to dye a night gown
and bed room window sheers
room for you to be bare in

light to come into, in through
these colors, these shades

these to bathe you in, light
to bath you in
in ink, is your reflection cast

how far I've strayed from wife to be
to be with you, for us to be together
here and there and everywhere

with me everywhere I go
as present as my beating heart
as lungs,
expanding and contraction


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
12:37 p.m. 20.03.10