08-24-2025, 01:32 AM
Wednesday's Smile
Like a root taken out of the ground,
while a mandrake cries,
squirrels rake and dogs hover
in their equipped sounds,
like the barista who appears at every coffee shop in America.
Digesting from a piss behind a dumpster
disguised as a taking in of the scenery,
a captain and a stooge climb the tall stairs
ramping the old-world ship that rests
in the harbor for, apparently, looks, and I make my way up.
There she is, like a black flower in a cozy bright dream,
standing by the doorway of the squat, cramped coffer-
shaped shop where the man places miniature ships
in bottles, as though love were but the first star
seen at night and an emperor from then on, though sky and time fly.
Escorted down, I hear the sea's silence and feel
my loins turn to family photo albums the future has
no guarantee of. I turn and walk west, the end of the world,
as though certain to see her again, without crudely assuming.
What's it been–nearly 20 years? She was freshly some five
years younger, and a face I haven't forgotten though sometimes she was dressed in black and other times in violet.
Like a root taken out of the ground,
while a mandrake cries,
squirrels rake and dogs hover
in their equipped sounds,
like the barista who appears at every coffee shop in America.
Digesting from a piss behind a dumpster
disguised as a taking in of the scenery,
a captain and a stooge climb the tall stairs
ramping the old-world ship that rests
in the harbor for, apparently, looks, and I make my way up.
There she is, like a black flower in a cozy bright dream,
standing by the doorway of the squat, cramped coffer-
shaped shop where the man places miniature ships
in bottles, as though love were but the first star
seen at night and an emperor from then on, though sky and time fly.
Escorted down, I hear the sea's silence and feel
my loins turn to family photo albums the future has
no guarantee of. I turn and walk west, the end of the world,
as though certain to see her again, without crudely assuming.
What's it been–nearly 20 years? She was freshly some five
years younger, and a face I haven't forgotten though sometimes she was dressed in black and other times in violet.
