as if scent and absence of lightΒ Β had solidified
congealing about the waltzing couple
drifting accidentally on purpose away
from the gaudy ballroom.
Both now not daring to
breath in case this moment would dissolve
the magic evaporate.
His clumsy hand upon her naked back for the first
time ever this forever
the flex of her shoulder blades as if
she were a swan about to take flight
and be gone...gone
that terrible thought tolling inside his head.
They only able to see each other by touch
alone feeling his breath upon
her right eyebrow she nuzzling into
an Adam's apple that kept bobbing up
ooops and that was not all.
He lost in the bob of her hair
she only had it done that day.
Their hips brushing against lilac and darkness
dancing on into the witching hour
the fadey ballroom music like an half forgotten
something or other the cicadas sudden
silence dissolving into
this mistimed kiss that nevertheless
he kissed an eye she kissed a nose
that still took time's breath away
the cicadas going crazy.
*
An old lady in a nursing home telling me about the young lady she used to be( and still is)and of her first beau at some big Great Gatsby type ball back in the days of her far flung youth and a world war about to rage and take away her young man who she would never see again. She replayed this one moment in her mind over and over again so that by the end I felt I had lived it tool. I showed her the poem and she used to stroke the words lovingly and touch them and kiss them.