Saturday, September 6, 2014

if you handed me the world

when she hands me the world 
i ask for it black, 
just cool enough to sip 
from a red tin cup
beneath a late afternoon sundown. 
when i hand she the world, 
she asks for it stirred
with sugar and soy milk
over ice cubes, 
beside me and that same sundown.

-----

one could spend his entire life 
chasing after places to see and be; 
so, she made me swear we’d spend our days
making the places we already were 
something worth seeing and being; 

(and someday,
the adventurers 
searching for the seven wonders of my 26th summer,
will find their guidebooks dead-ending  
beneath the hummingbirds of the los angeles river,
at the private delray beaches belonging to the owners of half-built condominiums, 
along the 2 am side-streets of southern boulevard,
beside the courtyard of a north palm beach panera bread, 
on the benches of a cafe and used bookstore in jacksonville, 
under the canopy of a brewery within the industrial district of suburbia orlando, 
in a hammock).  

and on the days you wonder,
how you'll ever cross 
from the failure you find yourself today 
to the person you've always hoped you might become; 
where the skies 
exchange there faded grays 
for the brightness you remember on those nights you used you dream;
she enters,  
like a bridge you never knew was constructible
like electric light, 
like flight, 
like impossible unfolding before your eyes, 
with body, hands, 
and a face like the winter constellations, 
and in an instant, 
the world is at your fingertips, 
like a story that wouldn’t let you blink even if you tried;
like paper airplanes 
and the speechless on your tongue, 
like the brightness in her lips, 
as they form i love you 
at last;
my world,   
is where she is, 
those sunsets -
really are the most colorful; 
those drives 
really are worth the miles; 
those moons, those 
cups of coffee, 
really are full, 
with the kinda full worth drinking fully;
and i am hers to the dregs.  

-----

if you handed me the world, 
it'd be five fragile fingers 
and her head on my shoulder, 
north los angeles
sundown.  

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