Peter Schireson: Last Night in the Freshness that Followed a Summer Rain

Last night in the freshness that followed a summer rain, 

I sat for an hour on a bench in the park, 

alone, reading the paper, unnoticed, ticking inside the words. 

.

An old woman walked by with her rawboned mutt, 

a young couple strolled by arm in arm, 

laughing as if they were gardenias. 

.

And our history drifted along behind them—

early hunger, nights I watched you sleep, 

days I followed you around like a duck.

.

How we looked into each other, 

how we danced through vampire nightclubs, 

our intentions green and full of desire, 

.

the music thick as smoke, and a nearness, as if everything was listening.

Sitting there, I watched my mind: one moment, alone on the bench, 

moon shimmering in a white bowl, in the next beside you in bed—

.

a parallel universe, dream within a dream, watching your body break 

out in wings, lifting you over grand, leafy neighborhoods, over sodden

streets with boarded-up stores, over suburban picnics with skateboarding

dogs, over a sole survivor at sea, agape, waving up from his lifeboat.

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Peter Schireson is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and dharma lineage holder, having trained in both the U.S. and Japan. 

Copyright 2020 Peter Schireson