3875. LET ME TAKE FIVE OF THESE

LET ME TAKE

FIVE OF THESE

Wandering like minstrels the pouty boys and their

lovely girls bowed down together to enter Rainbow Arch:

love was in their eyes, though for themselves and not

each other. The one girl was eating a chocolate swirl

like it was the end of the world, and one guy kept moving

to something in rhythm; as if dancing, he swayed. I only

saw later, an earbud in each ear. Man goes walking with

music 'midst friends. They finally entered the errant

oasis, and I lastly saw them smiling to each other,

as if each, relieved, was glad to be finished.

-

In my own heart remain traces of what may have been;

things that I missed, wished not to have said. I understand,

by now, that I myself have arrived, as well, as some odd

crossroads of time where the shadings of all behind me try

now to mesh with a present which tells me there's not

much of a future. It's all very strange. Perhaps I wish

I was one of those kids entering the rainbow bridge,

but I know better than that by now. My heart

has missed that arch some time ago.

-

I hear the sound of a barking dog, not that

far off, though not so near. Over at the

parking lot, all those festive cars, and

music, and people and dogs. All at once

a jumble : I want to be part of something,

but find myself walking, slowly and 

backwards, away from the noise.