(published in The Main Street Journal, Spring 09)
It's a cumbersome love and I do not know where to put it.
I found it on my doorstep one gusty day at
The beginning of fall.
Someone must have rung the bell and run away.
Hit and run,
I understand now
Why that's considered a criminal offense.
The wind chilled my skin like a martini
Should be served and the light was crisp. My hands
Were a little stiff because of my congealed blood,
Running in clots.
Sandpaper wrapped my knuckles as I tried to pick up
My new unwieldy love. Slippery.
Sharp corners and brittle signs.
I surrounded it with both arms as if hugging a box. As if
Lifting a keg of love.
Enduring girth.
My back bent as I pretended to be a vise and I prepared
To
A coterie of leaves were the only witnesses of my effort.
Nothing moved.
I first thought I could leave it there; let it be
A new addition to
My porch
Decoration.
True,
It got in my way.
Grocery bags, cat hair and a wild
List of knickknack junk
Kept being kept in its mucky web. Rain and autumn
Had done their scurrilous job and
My love
Looked forgotten, in its quiescent wait.
A remnant of my failure to
Bring it indoors.
Its wrapping started tearing away but I did
Nothing about it.
I tried to frighten it away. It simply wouldn't move.
My stagnant love.
I thought of selling the house but
Who would want such cumbersome
Devotion?
Deciduous fall passed and the deceiving keg stayed.
What willpower, may I say!
Piecemeal, I began to accept it. Good
Morning and have a nice day when leaving the house,
Welcome back at my return.
Yes, sometimes my coat would get caught by one of its
Sharp corners.
Yet, I didn't mind anymore.
A brackish kiss in the mornings,
An awkward hug at night.
A cup of coffee sitting on my porch,
Protecting my love from the cold. Like a spawning hen.
A cigarette, reading a book.
I started missing it when I went to work and I
Would rush back home
To tether it in hasty caresses and kind words.
Tight against its girth I would imagine a heart beat.
A
