Dandelion (A Goodbye Poem)

"You'll have to go somewhere else," he said 

"We don't sell Timelessness 

Here." 

"Of course you don't this is New Jersey

I just came for tampons

And minty tictacs."

They look right at you when they don't believe you.

"Timelessness, I went on, "is one of those dated things

Like typewriters, Koolaid, and solitude."

"Solitude," he mused, "we don't sell that either." 

And there it was blocking the exit

The thing I had to say

How do you tell someone tactfully

That his lover is a witch on a train to Salem?

It never comes out easily when

Someone is green-eyed between you and the door

And when Someone is the clerk at the CVS

And either will or will not sell you tampons.

She looks like Saturn

She's got hair the color of the Golden Age

Rings around her eyes but fingers bare and 

I never looked at her hands 

Out of modesty

Goodbye? 

You expect me to say 'goodbye' when we

Were a dandelion and no 

Spore ever leaves another:

Someone makes a wish and blows

And seeds fly off to carry that one private thought

To different places,

But no one ever says 'goodbye'

Unless one spore rides the wind

And the other

The train. 

Why not Salem if all you have left to lose

Is your youth?

He's out on the tracks as though he can stop a train

And I map out the wind routes as I drift along on the

Breath of intention because that's how I say a thing like

Goodbye.

Reviews

[jennifer little]

amazing work keep it upgood job

[bob, small b. aka invs]

this is amazing writing. unique style and content. very surreal. i can't say that i totally understand it, but that's ok. it's like one of those dreams that makes perfect sense when you're dreaming it, yet you don't understand once you awaken. the image of the dandelion spores on the wind and the train is genius. this poem was a nice surprise.