Monday, December 21, 2015

poem of the day 12.21.15

crossing over

ray says
my wife has been gone two years
but i still try to talk to her every day

okay, i tell him

last month her old hair dryer
fell off the dresser where i’ve kept it
and i took it as a sign

ray says
i haven’t moved that thing in two years
and then….BAM

all right, i say

when my wife was dying
she said she saw my mother, her father
and my brother all in the sky

ray says
my brother was a fireman
gone ten years
but my wife told me that he was still wearing
his uniform
everyone was calling him cap

some people live the job, i say

ray says
i found a one dollar bill in my pocket last wednesday
and on friday i found a ten on the street

good luck, ray, i say
that’s good luck

he said, my wife died on the eleventh
get it? one and then a ten

uh huh, i say

she’s always telling me stuff, ray says

always knocking photos over in the apartment
or sending a breeze on a hot day

for two years she’s been doing this to me
that’s why i got all these books, you see

life after life stuff, i say

ray says
if she’s gonna keep talking to me like that
i gotta know what to say
how to communicate

i see, i say

ray says
because i don’t know how long i’m still gonna be here for
could be today
could be tomorrow

the way i’m going it could be another ten years

and if my wife is gonna keep knocking things over
i need to find out what she wants

ray says
man, i need to figure out
this crossing over business

because yesterday the old lady knocked down
this whole row of collectable glasses

they shattered all over
the goddamned place, ray says

and now the set just ain’t complete
in fact, it’s gone

and, ray says
i don’t understand
because she always loved those things.


                                                            

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