See me on this worst recorded winter storm because

See me on this worst recorded winter storm because

I will not          embrace you                                    this time
                         catalog your fevers,                        shed corners this cabin offers
                         collect your fur                               this time of year.               

I will                buy you                                            a seat
                         maybe a beer                                   for the Great Awakening          playing at Cinema 8

                         or, an eight dollar polar bear           if we get comfortable.                     
                                                                                 
                                                                                And if we get comfortable,      Are you comfortable?
                                                                                And before the lights deem,
                                                                                I will tell you a story:

Ari stood directly in the 4 o'clock wintering sun,              

how far his love gone this time,                                   Bari? Cagliari? Catania? 

It didn’t matter.              

He   tossed her forwarding address        out onto terrace floor                               that same morning
        sat with coffee                                mindlessly tracing the burnt roof,
                                                                his mouth.

                                        

                                        Your mouth traced the burnt roof of my mouth

                                        was all she wrote    

                                        all she wrote               

                                        floated.

The story is 800 pages long so far and I’m still writing the introduction.

I want to sell you             his woman                                                for near pennies

I just met                          Who saved me glitter                               put her fingers in my eyes

     Who stroked my hair,                               gave me lipstick to eat

     Oh pretty one, how                                   red the soup was

     opal in your face, smile for me once,       rub your lips, say

     hum?                                                         Mmmm...

We are this close                      We are inches from the floor            We are two people
miles apart                                in a velvet room                                more or less




If I tell you softly, Rise and shine pumpkin pine, Will you rise?

                                                                               Twist your torso? 

                                                                               Dangle your feet?

Blink us back                                  into your bedroom

Where the scene is set:                    I stand                                      scrapping frost off the window.

                                                        You lay in bed,                          prop your head up with your palm.

                                                        Need more sleep?

Outside the dogs are dying in the morning twilight,

ashes lay about the brittle wet wintering leaves

defeated across the cobblestone street.

I will store             you                              bright            my bright   my brightest

I will sit                with your nest of          umbrellas

I will pluck           another                         period           for you,

The lawn chair next to mine freezes over by next week's snow storm.

Icicles dangle off the arms of your seat - I watch them                 how sharp

                                                                  I pencil draw                your cliffs 

                                                                  I study                          your terrain

                                                                  I wait.