dearest

jeffery mcnary


ah, there you are

i’ve been
hoping
you’d come soon

superstition, after all, held tricks
in its need to fumble
in processions and powers and pretense
and purposes and so forth…now you

courting comes slow for me
its rituals and grandly imperfect episodes

dearest you…scolding my being surprised
give me a minute…i’ll come around
i’ve waited
i’ve earned this rare payoff

like foreign films
full of smile and giggle
there’s you wrapped in elegant simplicity
from delhi to here…skipping along
in shining scenes all your own

it was out of my hands for a moment
me, caught in the corners
nervously afraid of all the straight lines
till i learned your ballads and kissed your nose
new and permitting

ah, there you are,
uncommon season
with my love all about you as a saffron metaphor
on sunlit autumn days

fresh and permanent…you and me…accompanied,
refined and marked
and as comprehensible and as
fragile and as gentle
…as naked trees in a warm rain