New Identities

You are the pleasing smell of Chinese grease

I am the invisible motivation to frolic in the fountain

You are a stranger's giggle &

an invitation to dance

I am a Cabaret Voltaire 12"

& half a clove cigarette

You are the diaphanous nature

of auburn clouds at twilight

I am the woman who raised you

but never dared speak your name

You are that familiar left shoe

abandoned on the roadway

never finding its twin

I am an expectant evening

after an expectant morning

spent talking on the phone

You are the receiver

the near-silent listener

the breather of shared truths

I am the walker the watcher

the faint scent of prawns

near the dumpsters at work

You are a newborn angel

a pageant of colors & functions

I am a poet, no matter

where you find me

lost on a street corner

that I'll never own

You are a plane ticket, yes

only one way to answer

I am a handstamp still worn

but only as a reminder

You are the fairy lights

strung between broken

promises only barely remembered

after a night washed in rum

I am a cluster of strangers, drunk & excited

We are the gift of mystery, alone at the table

We are mutual, the future

the last to be opened

We are the mission completed

the present grown tall