"Smile for me, Baby"
: I who has no lips to smile with,
no teeth to grin, no cheeks for dimples
at those tensed muscles --
"Smile."
Those glittering people
under the light by the bay, that
shining dark sky, and the cars
going by like stars on the tarmac.
You were laughing, and so was he, and
I was apart and absorbed, refreshed
by cold and my burnt mouth.
We tasted the smoke
and the salt of the water, heard
the music in a bar and teenage laughter
breaking on the pavement;
I wondered what it was like to be them
and to be among them and knew their world
to be completely other to my own.
Your teeth were shining under the lamplight
when your tongue joined them -- my hands
wrapped in yours, tucked in your pockets,
and my lips hovering over your shoulder
in silence --
and you smile at me.
You say you love me
and I smile too.
YOU ARE READING
THE OCEAN
Poetry'In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to look a little dark and threatening by bedtime. Then unexplored patches arose in it and spread, black shadows moved about in them, the roar of the beasts of prey was quite different now, and...
