“Proper Creole Farewells” by Jennifer Reeser
by Ernie on 22/02/12 at 10:31 am
He said I had to teach him our goodbye
following that long silence parting brings,
then let his coffee steam against the air.
Career, it was, to look at him—but why
should two blue eyes be such off-limit things,
and differences breed inconsequence?
The city seemed to me no more aware
of our resplendent history than I
lamented what lay waiting in its wings;
but, after midnight, words and love both share
the latitude to be relieved of tense,
and, shining on the terraces—though dim—
stood streetlamps destined to confound me, since
their light could never cede the sight of him.
Originally in The Louisiana Review.
