53 Song

 53: Song

 

I stop somewhere waiting for you.

 

There was a time, not long ago,

When nostalgia held sway,

            Remembering the good ol’ days:

                        We were supercharged,

            Remembering the stamina,

                        The can-do optimism,

            Remembering when there were

                        Still leaves introduced upon.

 

I sound my barbaric yawp.

 

There was a time, not long ago,

When I kept looking back-ways,

            Over my shoulder, side-eyed,

                        Glimpsing Vetruvian you,

            In the mirror, reflected-flipped,

                        Sharing a polished frame,

            At pictures, filtered and cropped,

                        Fireworks on black palettes.

 

Look for me under your boot-soles.

 

But now it’s now again.

The same kind of now we had before,

Only better, in the marginalia—

                        On the margins, returned and

            Spoken for in the present, free

                        From stale interpretations,

            Enlightened by best intentions,

                        Of past, lively, signatories.

 

It coaxes me to the vapor and the dust.

 

There is a time not long from now

When we’ll look back on now, like we 

Look back on then, right now:

            Nostalgia-wrought, sweetly

            Recalling optimistic yearnings

                        Wrapt , yea swaddled, doted

            Upon by stripes among diamonds,

                        Embracing the priceless.

 

I effuse my flesh in eddies.

 

But now it’s now again:

Progenitor: missive launcher:

            Scud dodging, raising domes

                        From amongst the heavens,

            Raining from dewy eyed stars,

                        Meteoric, fizzling on entry

            Celebrating the flanked fragments:

                        Rising from sodden deathbeds,

 

And filter and fibre your blood:

Smooth crags and straight prairies,

Drinking from gilt, dammed craters:

grails and cups and chalices.

            Continue singing and fetching,

Failing to fetch me at first

keep encouraged.

Missing me one place search another.

            Bequeath thyself as air.

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