parade
it was the mid-80s
I was nearing my teens
she was midway through hers
there on the cover of Parade magazine
in a flower-print dress
reclining on a rattan sofa
I’d never seen anyone so beautiful
for the first time in my life
I understood the way someone
can take control of the beating
of your heart, the tempo of your blood
thirty years later, against all odds
it’s after 10 p.m. on a Sunday night
I’m standing in her living room
while she feeds two small dogs
one of whom barks if I stop petting him
out behind the house stretch
acres and acres of the kind of land
they write novels about
a great blue heron lives in the pond
soon I’ll be 40
25 August 2013
Nashville, TN
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