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


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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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