Reckonings
Let it start
with the streetlamp at night
and the leaning against it
and the push of bodies, so certain,
that uncertain thoughts can not betray
these bodies, so in focus,
from the heat of you.
Let it start there, and summon a
the smells.
Invoke pungent sweat
from dancing hard
to erase and embrace everything
Thick in smoke and cologne,
an opulent brew —
and the moment is stretched out.
But let it not stretch too long,
for the bodies are eager.
Where to go? Do we care?
How many words
for heat and madness?
Let it be tables and floors
and rooftops and subways
Let us push off the dawn,
though it will push back.
And that first morning
will be catalogued
into many mornings.
Clothes thicken and soon
Other people, jobs,
relocations —
mandates and precisions.
Let it be a time neither then
nor now, and let it end
by a streetlamp at night.
Move towards the glow
from other pages,
inhale through years.
Yesterdays crumble, tomorrows curve.
Let it be, a prayer.