KEIRA LYNN DODD

Invitation

 

Let's you and me walk

           in the mid-day march,

but break ranks and scurry

           instead of hurry.

 

We can trip without falling

and fool ourselves into

being foolish

for once.

                No one who sees

                 will be watching. 

We are blips

         without radar.

We are sub-nuclear.

        Only nerds know we exist.

               

But we stay cool

         with the fan of our laughter

buzzing in the background

         while we skip the hip places

where "supposed-to's" go.

 

            We are lawless brigands

            without a clue how to brandish

            our swords.  Besides I'm disarmed

            by your heedless charm.

 

It may be wrong to feel right

           on a day not quite night,

but let's not worry about the sun's

           deportation or the sky's turning

black and blue.  Let's focus on

           you

                   and me and the "we"

we created.  It's a Grand Union,

           and it can take us to where

the moon don't shine, to the

           darkest, backwardest places

unexplored by any demon

           or lover. 

                          Let's be hellish

before dawn comes to take us

           home to our safe bed in our

safer house. 

                          (I can almost feel

the click of the lock of my life...)

 

      Save me from security!

 

Keep at least some of me here

          where we can play all night

and all day beneath

          the sometime stars

who hide their eyes

           if you ask them nicely.

 

(But we don't ask, we tell

          in witticisms the neighbors

                      wish they could hear.)

 

There are no questions

          between us,

nor no answers

          neither.  Both are deadly

as sneezes to moments which need

          to flower uninterrupted

or they lose their bloom,

          and blush to realize

they're naked.

                            I know—

we aren't in Eden, but in

          Cleveland. 

                               Still, it's rather

pretty in this half-

half-light illuminated by our eyes,

which flash and burn,

           fueled by more than the polluted

           water from the Great Lake or

the flaming river we make

in our wake.

                       Come, let's break

into a public park

          and spin that heady disk

until it hovers over midnight.

 

              It isn't too late

        to not say good-night.