Totally Hot


She wandered near the would-be
FAO Schwartz storefront, tugging down at her
powder blue miniskirt. Lilting out of the earth
like a lily stalk.
All about ascent.

A Flamenco line, long and tending to weightlessness,
kept from lifting off the street
by an invisible cloak of humility, salted
with appealing noble droplets
Of uncertainty.

Sun-exalted legs, radiating celestial tan,
the liveliest shade of brown.
Long arms, more of that blue in a tunic,
then the face
you dare not look into, an improvement
on what Gauguin tried to capture
in the islands.

This is the beauty that walked through some other existence,
electrifyingly seen for 5 minutes
on the hottest day of the year.

Intermittently tugging, still,
at the hem of your skirt,
flipping solar-charged
brown hair
away from your shoulder,
one eye noting my presence --- time to break contact.

One goes south,
One goes east, diverging
at the overpriced pizza joint,
striding on either side
of the red-painted vertiginous brick.

When you lope back to your lair,
I will begin, finally,
to hunt for those other lives,
like any good retriever,
never again believing
that what you promise
is impossible.


----------- Lp

7/1