(to “Junkets,” I would love you, if I could travel back to you)
You took me by surprise, my lover
I knew you were waiting patiently by the fountain
for me to come to you, as you knew I would
both of us slipping quietly away from
our alternate lives, bound and chained by time
in servitude to the lies we see
as reflections in the mirrors we pass through
as we leave our promises behind us
like ashes from long dead fires
smoldering softly asleep.
I gasped as I felt your arms
encompass me in the dim light of the street torch
your lips burning like sweet poison
everywhere they touch
and they touch everywhere
and I think: if we should be discovered
at this moment and be killed for our indiscretion
then I would die content
but the street is happily deserted
the tinkling fountain and our sighs the only sounds.
The larkspurs by the fountain are drooping
the hour too late for their lovely faces
You dip your hand in the shimmering pool
and pull up a piece of shiny gold...a coin
of some foreign mark: a bright, thin thing
and you whisper, “Make a wish on it, my love
And I shall throw it back in!”
“No,” I cry. “Let us both wish on it, then
leave me have it so I can
wish on it always and wish for you!”
So we wish. And I take the coin from him
and leave him there. And through my silvered
mirror I pass again, back to my own age
my own time, my own space,
my realm of utter unhappiness and as
I wait under electric street lights by fountains
I pull out the coin and wish, wish, wish
I’ve gone back through the mirror many times
Yet, I’ve never seen my lover since
the night we didn’t throw the coin back in.
