10-25-2017, 03:21 PM
As If
As if the corpse behind the crime scene tape
got up and took a bow where it dropped dead;
as if I got a phone call from the grave
and asked its occupant to share my bed.
Nine years ago, we fought and split apart
with our beloved city underwater.
I turned to short-term lovers in the dark;
you moved in with a southern judge's daughter.
I have to pinch myself to prove you're back,
though balder, ten pounds thinner, better dressed--
as if the universe had jumped a track,
no hurricane, no choices second-guessed.
At times my ears pick up the strangest sound,
as if the dead were clapping underground.
~Julie Kane, from Cherry Tree
As if the corpse behind the crime scene tape
got up and took a bow where it dropped dead;
as if I got a phone call from the grave
and asked its occupant to share my bed.
Nine years ago, we fought and split apart
with our beloved city underwater.
I turned to short-term lovers in the dark;
you moved in with a southern judge's daughter.
I have to pinch myself to prove you're back,
though balder, ten pounds thinner, better dressed--
as if the universe had jumped a track,
no hurricane, no choices second-guessed.
At times my ears pick up the strangest sound,
as if the dead were clapping underground.
~Julie Kane, from Cherry Tree