poem of the day 06.10.09

bond street

i can pass bond street
pretty easily now
just walk over the cobbles in the street
and meet you at a bar
or pick up a bottle of scotch
from the wine store
i can pass bond street
without thinking about that night
we drank half a mag of cheap chardonnay
four of those vodka and lemonades
from that russian bar
the whiskey shots
and all of that beer in mcsorely’s
yes, i can pass by bond street now
without thinking about
you falling over in the bar
and the sawdust on your shirt
the burmese dinner we never ate
and the way those fundamentalists
came over to us in ray’s pizza
after you spilled your coke all over
the floor
and i started shouting at you
the way they came over
and just handed us that card
which read jesus saves
and i told them that ignorance is bliss
and to fuck off
before i made them really need their god
but they just kept smiling at us benevolently
as we grabbed our shit
and staggered out of there, still hungry
i guess it’s that easy for some people
easy like passing bond street
without thinking about how
i made you give me back the engagement ring
or how i pretended to throw it down lafayette
the way we shouted back and forth
underneath the red neon of that parking lot
as people walked by holding hands
asking us if everything was all right
bond street is a cakewalk now, baby
you should try it out
i can run and jump over those cobblestones
i can hum a song or think about
anything that i want to
i don’t have to think about
how i called you a whore
and accused you of fucking dale behind my back
even though we both knew he was gay
i don’t have to think about you crying
in the ugly manhattan night
with your father in the hospital for cancer treatment
and your fiancé an ugly mess
bond street is all roses and daffodils for me now
and it took me years to get there
it’s amazing what time can do
when i see bond street now
i think only about you, darling
and the way love meanders
so beautifully as it ages.
sometimes
i think bond street ain’t so bad
anymore.