you sat in the blue Naugahyde MCM chair
across the kitchen table
wearing your electric boogaloo
expression
I couldn't believe it was you
how your molecules had arranged and then re-arranged themselves
I'd thought about you so often that I'd changed
the expression on your face
nearly a thousand times
with anticipation
being apart does make the heart
grow weary with madness
was I then your mirage of hope or relief
your Florence Nightingale cooing
a Helen of Troy running from the burning horse
a Chimera of all that you'd been dreaming
who will save who
or is it real
or lost in some far-flung imagining
here I sit naked, cold and shivering
with disbelief
or is it simply daring Joy to show her face
are you real, substantial
or if I reached out
would you dissipate
your solid chair collapsing into the floor
or would your collective molecules
gather forward
so all it once I could breathe you in
and you would be made substantial
when, when, when?
LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM WRITTEN MARCH 1998
AND RE-WRITTEN TODAY INTO A NEWER FORM 2/19/2022 12:29PM TIME AND DATE STAMPED
AND ALSO FOR THIS POET MELISSA A. HOWELLS
AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGALLY REGISTERED AND COPYRIGHTED SITE TITLE
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD
