A Song I Don't Like By A Band I Don't Like

I asked my husband,

Do you remember the first time we met?

And he said,

But of course

you were wearing a white dress at the kegger

and who does that

it's madness

.

but it wasn't entirely mad when

the two of us still share

that memory of

first love

first met

.

in August or maybe it was September of 2010

I was eating dinner with a friend

in a fake glitzy ritzy Vegas

celebrity chef

restaurant

&

he says

.

Didn't you use to be friends with that model?

And I'm all, what model? where? you

assume it's somebody

famous who just

walked in

.

only what he says next is

.

the blond,

wasn't she in catalogs,

and there was that other girl

the brunet

always with the two

of you

.

I have now

officially

lost

the power

of

speech

.

hey, he says,

I know it was you, OK,

i know it was

you lived around the block

from the swim club,

& the three of you would

walk over there

in your bikinis

and...

.

some bullet points are called for here

• That was 1975
• The brunet was my sister
• My friend and I met in 1993
• Which is why he never met my sister

.

I must have said some of this aloud

because then he says

.

Yeah, sure, I introduced myself

at that party in 93

but you know

I knew you two were

going to be there

.

and he says,

Hey, everyone watched you,

all the guys, not just me,

you all three had...

.

and he gestures at my blouse

styled for Vegas

& I

& I

& I

still don't know how I got out of there

what I said or

what more he said

only that I got out

.

so what's the answer to this question?

.

let's say

I watched you for

18 years & after I emerged

from my shadows

then

I waited

another 17 years to

tell you about the

watching

.

well, there's vegetable love

vast and slow

but it's best left to the pages

of yellowed poetry

tomes

the kind with crushed

wildflowers

between the pages

somebody

pressed there

in

1789

.

I never felt quite safe with him again

.

tho I'd be no safer if he never told me

.

if one hasn't spoken for 35 years

why speak at all?

.

maybe this:

35 years on,

first heat of first love

long forgotten

hot obsessive fire long burned out

he thought the story a laugh to share

over creme brulee

.

or maybe this:

one last final hail Mary

to win by flattery what

he could not hope

to win by other

means

.

I saw you and your beautiful friend the model

and your pretty younger sister but

it was you, always you,

that i watched

from the

dark

Another offbeat poem on the theme:

I have other nature poems too: