Laura

"Strange you never knew" (Mazzy Star)

(for LP)

-first impressions-

Too long ago and too far, and yet the pouty smile can still curl

like a puppy heart, can't it?

--and set a stray red rose in her place, commemorative & cute

like a ghost of a girl

is just what I'd have done! And my return like a hero to a glad

past sunny June,

and not another day more, was nothing but a search for the same

hair and eyes still,

and not one word more or day. Even at the school gate, I a clumsy

silent rose-bearer,

--or in a dusty hallway where she'd dutifully sung & preened in the light,

like a young teacher--

only there could I have looked &let a girl who always went straight home

settle like a dream,

(2025)