Pulling Muscles For Michelle Poem by Cretan Maineiac

I would've quit anything to
get inside
that long purple coat ('it's supposed

to get real cold tonight') , taken a night
job driving
taxi ('you drove a cab? ') just to hear

that phone ring ('you'd better call
me') , and then
beyond the shadows that Squeeze song came on & i

sang along... skipped out on work
just to share
lunch, lied about

that number on the phone bill, even got
caught- behind the
shadows- that almost something that wasn't, singing

along, even as the phone hadn't
rung in days, weeks,
months in work-worn (not stone-

washed) jeans & awaiting her soft-brown-smilin'-Irish-
(trebly) baritone to
chime along 'you're just a big ol' money tree &

need

someone to Shake it
all
out of you.' But behind

the shadows- X-mas eve, New Year's, Labor
Day, the Day
After Thanksgiving, cold drizzle at the Neil

Young show- nothing was too good to
quit for
those eyes & that voice ringing along w/ the

misheard lyrics, in the night before or
morning after, 'good
talking to you...I

thought about you for...other things...I'm
getting in the
bathtub to osmose...' unlisted, now, officially

licensed/maine.edu-Brand
master & mother, nor
ever Scheduled to to be

Bothered to
Ring me
again.