Of Friendship

"My ability doesn't go far enough to undertake a rich, polished picture"

So I doodled around her, "a lovely woman

Tapering off to a fish"

She flapped to the corner and wrote there

Have you noticed her empty

How a better hand waves

Then I try


*


From the apartment we flattened paths to the trees

Sunlight on the quiet between us

I gathered up our inclinations

Returned to my description

How seldom we all are I felt wearing her coat—

"Because it was she, because it was I"

And then by the years I held her in fabulous net

Wearing her jacket we shook from the winter

"Embraced each other by our names"

And danced in the regular rooms

In loving, in play

I have shirked


*


"Walk in those other friendships bridle in hand, not so well tied"

Go where the action is clean, in passion

To learn "the secret to reveal to no other man"

Even doubled my soul

"Nothing bitter or stinging about it"

We plunged the mixture of us

Walking free


*


And at the edge of the plot

It required many names

It sat up on the couch

It entered the singing

With shy mouth it belonged there




From M (Song Cave, 2015). All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of the author.