The Green Sea

Holding out on me about whether or not she will go with me to the beach is killing me. It is bright beautiful and sunny outside but not too hot. Cool enough, I think, for this girl from the suburbs to come out look at the ocean. Time to face the world already, it’s 3:30. She protested, lying on the sofa calling me over. We talk for a while and she goes back to reading a magazine. The television’s on, and some dope is preaching about space, and suddenly I remember suddenly that my focus has badly slipped off the mark. I had thought about this before, when I was drunk at Jeannie’s party and promised myself I would remember it, but I forgot to remember. What had driven me so off course? I wanted to travel some more but I’ve been in this town for months now. The sun sets each day; my heart content with work and ready for reward. I have eyes green as the sea to sail through each night, and then I wake up the next morning and sail on that boat out deep into the green sea…

She Is Beside Me

As difficult as it has been to forget about her I still try. Late at night I lie back and close my eyes to the world and enter her apartment. The heat has been turned up and continues to rise giving life to the plants and flowers on her windowsill. I peer out into the gray city and marvel at what a bass player’s salary can provide. I feel a hand on my hand squeezing gently reminding me I left the hot water on. The program on the television is explaining why tribes in an unknown region are at war in the thick jungle. Beside dark oak doors that lead to her bedroom rests her red boots and a pack of cigarettes. I open the pack and finger one long 100 to give to her and look for a book of matches. A sharp pain in my side reminds me I have not slept in days, and that hazy glow I see is not real. She is speaking in a language I do not understand but I know what she is saying. She reaches toward the coffee table for a tissue. A new record is on I take her face in my hands and kiss her lips and her tounge. Her apartment faces East and as we crawl back into bed we can feel the sun’s warmth on our eyelids. It sings us a lullaby we fall asleep to. I lie in bed wide awake and dream that she is beside me…