2 Days After Poem by bill costley

2 Days After



to Patricia Hughes

Before noon 2 days after,
I see you in your window
& you wave me up to your floor,
to meet you in 2nd-floor hallway.

You explain what's happened:
“People have told me not to see you, ”
but can't name who they are (denying Gale.)

I reply: “I've never meant you any harm.
If I have to not see you, then I won't. Btw, I'll
no longer be seeing Dereck's 2 cats here after today
because Dereck comes back tomorrow.”

I turn & leave, but you call me back for a brief hug.
I leave again & you disappear into your apt.

Later,3-ish, we suddenly meet outside at ground level &
you suggest we sit on the wet green bench between our bldgs.

Once you see the mailman coming (as usual, after 3PM)
you suggest we sit instead on the sofa in your bldg.'s lobby
where you pull out of your soft French quasi-carpet-bag
a paperback copy of FOUR SUFI CLASSICS.

Always bemused by you, I delightedly reveal:

“I read Sufi poetry (Rumi, etc.) when an undergraduate.”
Your continuing to read it attracts me even more to you.

You hand me a small tangeine & I hand it back, but

you hand it back to me again saying: “I have too many.”
& as I usually do, I deftly peel it with my tiny pen-knife
& eat all of its tart pulp.

(01 MAR 14, noonish PDT, V V 4-4D, Santa Clara CA)

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Patricia Hughes again, continuing...
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