05 December 2012
Light on a Dark and Stormy Night
I could do these things
especially if you asked me
like follow you across a strange
and dangerous city
at night in the rain
of course it’s raining
and windy too
and huddle beneath
an awning (tri-coloured
like somebody’s flag)
when the rain became
too much and when the first bolt
of lightning struck
I would actually run
and pull you after
me like Eurydice
I think that’s the one
can’t really remember
but I would try to
while you pulled out
your cigarettes
and tapped one out
and that’s when you would ask
and that’s when the glinting Zippo
would appear from my jacket (I almost wrote
magically but I didn’t)
like a knife and then the flame
would follow
your face would be beautiful
(and I did write it, a form of it,
this time) in magical shadows
and we would both guard the fire
though we didn’t need to
as you drew in the first draw
like the first taste
of a strawberry milkshake
(notice how you don’t even
need to use the word “straw”
since it’s already there
in “strawberry”)
and the end glowing orange
and the lighter clanking shut
as you turn-tilted your head
to blow the first puff up
and past mine
and I would wait
while you took a tiny
bit of tobacco off the tip
of your tongue
whether there was a tiny bit
of tobacco there
or not
and I would notice
your pink lipstick
on the cigarette and remember
the flavour of the milkshake
but you don’t smoke
and I don’t own
a chrome-plated Zippo
but these things I would do
so maybe you should
take up smoking
and these things I would do
I would
__________________________________________
By the by, all the "ands" are on purpose.
If you don't believe me, take a re-peep at stanzas 1 and 3 and 6.
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