(photo by Sue Ballinger)

Cafe This.

When we fell together
A sofa bench felt softer than
The warmest sun
And all around the iron glow
Of currents traced to sideline
In a neon haze
Amazing
That we could be so
Absolutely perfect
The rotary of pinpoint flesh
Electic thoughts
Inside they
Trail in swirls of simmering
Flash enigma craze
Float from heart to heart
Like fission
I never felt so simply
Undeniably alive
As that night
Beneath the cafe lights

Sentences were ruptured
Couldn't form that night amidst
A dream of agonizing peace
Ironically a spectral thing
Those four walls and plaster
Wearing colored bits of paper
And carousel and storms of
Lysergically dripped mosaic
Misty massacre
And nothing like the currents
Running through my head
Swimming circles in my mind
I was trained to be a martyr
But I don't know
The first thing about that
Anymore

The whole thing felt so right and wrong
I love you but
I never thought you'd come
I felt like screaming out so long
For someone
Emptiness bulged beneath the moon
And you were so beautiful
I could feel the room
Get comfortably smaller
And draw you in
I never thought you'd come

No rain fell
It must have been the weight
Of all those twisted days
Those spinning phases that
Dazed with without warning
That started lifting
And letting love rush in
The vacant place
The hole that filled my heart
The tumult of a million crying
Atrophied white summers
A dozen things to do
When should I call you?
How best to follow up
That magical first kiss
I never knew a kiss
Could be so spiritual
It wasn't like people said
It wasn't like a movie
Your lips were so much sweeter
The waterfall
Of pent-up bliss erupted
And bathed my arid days

As the day
When we could see each other
Inched closer
My mind was racing so I hardly
Slept at all like winter
When bears shack up in shelter
And find
That they cannot unwind
Still turning
With thoughts of
Agitated active wonder
That frustrates sister slumber
I flushed
Full of buzzing bumblebee
Delight I heard you whisper
I love you
I never thought you'd come.