LIKE LIONS

we mostly slept.

Lounged on the stripmall’s runway,

little concrete villa, all aluminum sides

and neon light. So pretty in the dark.

Thin-lipped weather in the plaza’s shallow avenues

with its low curbs and garbage cans of different sizes.

We all shook hands and grinned.


She invited me over, or I her; the details

are whitewashed with style. We hung around,

dim and cool like a bunker before the war.

Practiced taking our clothes off

in a silence crisp as a pressed suit.

Thumbed the buttons on the shirt

of the room around us. We took big gulps.


Like a trust fund, we became more luxurious

with each passing day. Certainty fanned out

like a search team. A general consensus wavered,

broke, re-collected itself. Things got boring

and one of us left. With apologies to those of you

waiting for the payoff, I guess this is it.