Strange Places

Here’s a tip, click on the title of the post so you get a better formatted poem to read. The words get all squished together on the main page.

Yesterday I waited for the day’s second last bus
to barrel down Broadway
and bring me closer to a place where you said,
	Our mission is to build beautiful light.

You had to coax me out of the corner
as we stared at one another through slits
of light cast by the moon
or perhaps the streetlamps;
nobody could ever tell
over the white noise of a dying conversation.

If you want to go for the big money—
	(I’d like to live in the delicate part of your voice
	where every word thrives in immoral inflections)
				—you’ll have to kick in half.

It was the only time I noticed your eyes
were dark freckles swimming in a murk of blue
so I had to shudder,
then smile at my secret discovery.

There were Others but we didn’t care
and They wouldn’t look;
	When Nobody sees anything, it never happened,
you tell me through clouds of cigarette smoke
clinging to damp early morning air.

Well that’s a shame
since it was the greatest of fun
trying to get in there when the tide was going out.

Remember my kiss,
it tastes like vanilla mint lip balm.
I’ll remember the way
			we fell apart
reaching for the door,
past grey chances,
and old dances—
	You take care of yourself,
	I’ve got enough to worry about.

I need to learn to walk faster
because I was left behind again.

© Caroline Cheng, 2008

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~ by aubergineconfetti on May 3, 2008.

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