12.27.10

take me down the streets of old occoquan.
show me the window displays filled
with antique purses and mannequin heads.
i want to remember the calm in beauty.
i want to remember
the romance of nostalgia.
before the days where i would criticize a man
for simply wanting to get away.
before the days i hid
under floppy hats
and impossible clothes.

stay with me
while i take five dozen blurry photos
of an old lamp light
with the camera you let me borrow --
or a fish, that terrible fish,
flopping aimlessly
on dissolvable wire.

you remember.
you remember me before.

.