poem of the day 07.12.09

cleveland

young lovers
take it slow
because this one time
i was dating a girl for six months
when her parents decided
they wanted to move to cleveland.
she came over to my house in tears
and we laid on the couch
as she cried
and i tried to sooth her as best as i could
(we had just started having sex).
she said she didn’t want
to move to cleveland
that her dad had moved her everywhere
for newer, better jobs
as if such things existed
from chicago to buffalo to pittsburgh
now this.
she was nineteen at the time
and didn’t want to start over again.
laying there i didn’t know what else to do
i promised her she wouldn’t have to go
i promised her an apartment
and safety and comfort
even though i still had over
two years left in college
i lived with my parents
and had a part-time job at the library
while she didn’t work at all.
this talk seemed to cheer her up.
she quit crying and began to smile.
we made love on the carpet
and everything was settled.
except two weeks later
her dad decided not to move
and we never talked about getting
an apartment together ever again
but continued on through almost two years
of a miserable teenage relationship
and when it ended
i came by her house and she handed
me all of my things in a big garbage bag
which i lugged back to my car
in about three inches of november snow.