Where Were You? - poem

WHERE WERE YOU? I MISSED YOU, BABY

The moon was a prison-yard spotlight,
chasing down my furtive soul.

The streetlamps rising from their concrete lakes
were a dozen Excaliburs,
their light slipping through my fingers,
reminding me how unworthy it all is
without you.

Some days I'm NBA tall
and the world edges out of my way.
But when I expect you in my arms
and I find myself dancing with the empty air instead,
that's when I'm small.
That's when I'm the ridiculous mime
walking against a wind no one else feels
and my soul is a sputtering match about to go out,
a flame that refuses to flare unless cupped in your hands.

I missed you, baby. Where were you?

Don't you know I wanted you?
Don't you know I wanted to toss you down
on the stormy seas of my bed,
where every night with you is always high tide
and full of misdemeanors?

The world is nursery rhyme simple, but we forget.
Come be with me.
We'll bank a fire against the cold.
We'll build a shelter against the wind.
We'll take a walk each day
from yesterday into tomorrow,
and the moon will spin and the sun will rise
and the press of your flesh
against mine
will be a sweetness
that needs
no poetry.