18.3.05

We go to his girlfriend's play practice: Copacabana.
Meet her at a restaurant, where she tries Irish Creme ice coffee
and decides it's her new favorite flavor.
I'm the third wheel,
but for my observations as an outsider, I am valuable.

Before we leave, we see Isaiah with his parents
One of whom seems caught somewhere between regret and joy
The other settling into the life she has chosen.
"As long as you're working toward something
and following a path,
things will work themselves out," she says,
as her husband absentmindedly spins the ring round and round on his finger.

As they kiss goodnight,
I blow tall columns of breath into the air
Against the grey lights of the parking lot.

He walked her to her door
And I thought it was beautiful

I tried to burn the image of it all into my mind
so that I could remember beauty when I needed to

We went back to my house where we played
four games of shuffleboard
(I won a dollar, but didn't make him pay).

Before he left, we stood in my living room
With the giant windows
Through which the light from our own
luminescent town
shone

"No matter who you are"
he says
"Everybody
needs
held."

So we cling to one another

and it's far from everything we need
but
that's ok, because
it's enough.

It's enough
for now.