I Recall
by nacona
by the first of May
the copulating Love Bugs emanated
to grace the air like ash fall,
a blanket of insect orgies
covered our town in a grey swarm—
no vehicle was safe from their acid assaults.
We watched them Kamikaze,
brave as Romeo and Juliet
into our charging windshields.
They plagued that hamlet
until August piped them away.
The palms would pom-pom
their shade-less fronds in the breeze
and by ten the asphalt sizzled
pools of pond mirages,
and we would chase the sky
in the road, our tongues bitter
from blue blotter paper.
Every day was a Friday night
drunk at a table in the pub of life,
and death was not the TNT
triggered terrorist sitting next to you
at the bar.
Everywhere I strolled
in those streets of ninety-nine,
a rush hour of blithe faces
packed each intersection,
and what I remember best
is stumbling to answer your knocks,
my breath laced with Bud Light,
and greeting the flush warm face of love
holding out a life-jacket to me.
2/20/2007
1st Draft
Charlotte, NC
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