poem by Greg Hall, copyright 2012

I DON’T KNOW

What woke me
Was the shoe
On fire
In the closet,
And the reason
I walked
To work was
The panther;
How she got
Into my car
And locked
The door,
I don’t know.
For years I saw
Single gloves
On the phonebooth floor,
On the freeway
Run over
By trucks,
Or crisp and wrinkled
Among the wrack,
Mournful
At high tide.
Who wore
The gloves
And where
Their mates are,
I don’t know.
Now you
Are lost
And so
Are the days
Torn from
The tree
And burned.
The nights pass
Even faster
Than a time-lapse film
Such as those
In which a rose
Buds and opens
And fades and dies
Within 35
Heartbeats.
I saw so many
Drowning
And tried
To play a waltz,
But the sea
Refused me
A partner
And the waves
Were impossibly high.
With a shell
And a fish
And an apple
I waded into the night,
Immaculately decked out
In white shirt and tie
With crossed fingers
And the state of mind
Of a Prince
I swam towards
The only light
I saw
Venus
Solitude
At sea
And her nightdress
Of torn fog
And the disappearance
Of the wind
And the icy water
And the swells inhabited
With glowing teardrops
And the dark wine
Of the nautical evening,
And how far
Each of us
Must swim
I don’t know…

Categories: poem by Greg Hall

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