The World's Fondest Lovers


I'm coming to terms with this:

rivers flood.
somewhere a blue and white airplane
is falling out of the sky.

every morning I wake up with words
I have never said, things I have never done
and the sound of my heart
reminding me that time is running away.

I look out the window and the grass dies.
I hear ruin ticking in the walls.

in a dream I saw a ship beached in the desert.
someone had named her Love's Quest,
and the captain,
the old salty sea dog couldn't swim.

somewhere on some other shore
in some calm break in some storm,
desperate to reach him
you were filling several small bottles
with the same worn note.

I left only because you knew I would.

here, and everywhere, children are
growing up. the world's fondest lovers
are drifting apart.

in the dream I was writing a poem to
no one about everything that will endure.
you were writing a letter to me about
everything that should.