10

Don’t give places away like spare change.

There is someone, then there are others –

different yes, but wedged into the perennial gap of

desire; (ful)filling need.

Places are pleasure un-autonomous: you

and only you decide, when. For how long.

Don’t ruin a good thing with sentimentality:

Weaving mythical hybrid of ours and firsts,

stage-set for time defiant narratives;

forcing arbitrary into destiny’s coat.

If this place is you and I, then what happens when it’s just ?

So, I will bring him where I happened to bring you

the night you fell in love; colder

without smoke breaks and

older he is already in.

Ownership lasts as long as the sangria –

you-connotations drained with the fifth jug

months ago. His, after this one.

Places are not lives, they don’t mold themselves

to the shape of people, and there isn’t that shock

of swimming in the cold air of oversize,

or feeling pulled tight at the shoulders; what had seemed a perfect fit.