A sorbet for Tuesday
May 11, 2010
Every now and then, I publish one of the sorbet poems in this space. I rather like this one. I’m very fond of the picture it paints. So, here you are, on a Tuesday afternoon in May, with the sun pushing the shadows of buildings up the avenue and me 18 floors above it all – wishing I was out in it…Here is a February picture…
having a cigar with Bud
Yes, I can sit on the back deck in the February sun
and smoke a cigar while the sparrows and chickadees
fluster the apple tree – flirt with the feeder.
I can sit and be still with the little propane heater hissing
in my ear, my journal and a pen on the table, maybe
a tumbler with some whiskey.
I will drift and watch the snow do nothing but be white.
I will acknowledge the inevitability of spring – in a few months
this snow will be gone and grass will grow, again.
But I would prefer your company.
I would rather have you than the snow and this sun.
Snow is a dull conversationalist. This sun barely warms.
We have a slow acknowledgement between us
that nothing is perfect – that we are both flawed –
have made mistakes. We take stock, you and I.
We smoke our cigars inside a lingering reverie. We somehow
manage to be present. With you at 75 and me at 50,
we have 125 years of imperfection between us
and still, there are those who love us despite our failings.
There are days when I yearn for the company of particular men.
Conversations in which much is said with just a few words.
Where silence is just fine. Where some things are always forgiven.
Tomorrow I will sit on the deck with the silent cat and have a cigar.
I don’t know if there will be sun. I know there will be snow piled
in the back yard. I will play Charlie Haden’s version of
Barber’s Adagio. I will have a whiskey. There are things I will never
understand about you. And there are certainly things you will not ever
comprehend about me. We meet in a rarified middle ground where honour
and integrity hold – and we have cigars.
Tomorrow, on the deck, I will wish you were there.
2 Comments
1. Dolly Dennis had this to say: May 12, 2010 ~ 11:14 ~ #
Lovely lovely lovely! Thanks for sharing!