Living in Between

You sleeping in jest
smiling
like midnight
gone soft in summer.
Yesterday slithers among
the jasmine and poppies
aimless and content.
The smell of night mingles
with the smell of us
the distinctions gone smooth…
as winter passes
the difference between
in here and out there
needless.
You supine
draped easily
in my mind
trusting the contoured reasoning
the absurdity of time
so obvious and naked
in the soft tissue
connecting one moment
to the next.
You believing
in our synchronized gate
down Dolores Street
to the corner
for carrot soup
and crustinies
water with lemon
sitting
in sturdy wooden chairs
smiling…
present and able.
We watched the moon
waxing and waning over the city
denying the measure it implied
accepting only the stunning truth
as we smiled through the smoke of
herbal cigarettes…
you let me hold your hand.
The white noise
of porn and wine
quelled by the simple companionship
of cotton and soap….
you always bought cucumber soaps
and brushed your teeth acceptingly.
I rest on the memory
realizing it’s immediacy and fiction
not denying its inherent truth
just the distance I perceive between us.

March 7, 2006