the rix mix

My desk accumulates clutter
pictures on the walls hang
above piles of records & books
paper poems & dirty dishes

I stirred myself from this sanctuary
for a ride on a carousel
with a beautiful woman

We drove to the boardwalk
she won a stuffed minah bird
by busting a balloon
revealing the secret prize

I beat her at pinball
but she shook enough tokens loose
from from the poker slots
to get plastic backscratchers
for us both

Then the night became mist

I had gone searching again
for something I lost years ago
& when we pulled into her driveway
I wondered if I had revealed
the wrong part of myself

What if I had shown her where I lived -
the facade I had built of words
fronting a house as empty
as the boardwalk arcades
on the icy nights of January

(1992)

Labels: jersey shore, love, poem