Here and There

That sugar shaker's gone now

but

when it was there

it was almost like a painting,

its dirty old glass

—or powdered from within—

was, like, foggy,

y'know? and

it just sat there

on a countertop that seemed to bend

as if to swallow it. A cubist

could explain that, and

maybe it was the sugar crumbs

beside it here and there;

still there until

someone sweeps them up:

They won't go anywhere themselves.

 

It's probably Renata who.

It was she who moved the shaker to

the man who brought his cigarettes

just as another downcast boy was leaving.

It was his

conversance made me smile,

reminding me of me before,

when I was there, y'know? and

smiling I saw

that she was smiling too

and

after she served the newest guy

she said to me

"Don't think too much."

So I borrowed her pen

to write these lines.

 

That sugar shaker's gone now

from where it was, but

when I look over there I see

it's there;—only the shape

of the mound has changed

and its lip is pointing

in another direction—

Like a girl long gone

it's just there now

just as she was once on yr/ couch

or in yr/ arms under the lintel

 

and the beautiful girl

leaving now with her friend

is there, and now

is there

so that now it seems

she's gone.

 

If everyone and everything

seems there

and gone

and only you and I are here,

remember she was once here too

when she was here with me, and

thinking of that,

I guess being here inside this place

everyone and everything is here now

though just before I wrote these lines

everything and everyone seemed gone.