Poetiq

California. That's where I'm going. I hear you can take back what you've said in those parts. ...who are we anyway?

for Mrs. Irick

guess what?

Rainy eyewater sizzles and pops in the maze of interpretive electronics

on which i'm writing.

i have been thinking about you a lot recently.

this is not to say

i don't think of you

every day,

words that shrink into

boiling

brimming

blistering

tears.

 

a long time ago

when my mind was raw

i stood on tiptoe

and watched you draw;

said i'd seen you run

and i knew your son

said he was good, too

and then you looked up.

said, he's amazing

and i had to agree

and you offered me a seat

said, sit beside me

underneath this old growing drawing tree

in the middle of a growing school in a growing growing city.

well i sat a while and you said something

and i nodded and i smiled and we started to sing

VERY BADLY but together.

then you got up really fast

said i have to go

hug, said, nice to meet you

and i didn't say, i know!

i remember to the letter what you said to me

underneath that old growing drawing tree

but i don't really know

if this is really how it goes

but that's how it is in my memory.

 

well a few years flew and we talked a lot

we smiled when we were blessed (and whined when we were not)

and the tree was cut down, and the school was too

but you were always there when i needed you.

 

and then it goes that you said one day

something else that really blew my mind away

said i couldn't couldn't sink without my own consent,

and i have to say

you were my lifeboat anyway.

(i hope that you can't see me now

bubble bubble pop!

can't even reach the top

cause i've sunk so far and i Won't crawl out.)

 

and i didn't didn't recognize our last salute

for a last, or i would have acted differently

hugged you, maybe told you

how much you meant to me.

[and i never never did; now i never never can]

still i'm shocked, and i feel worse for your family.

still i'm shocked! and i want trek back! i inveigh!

still i'm shocked, and i wish i knew

what to say.