Poem 531

A doomed attempt to pick up a youthful relationship a decade on – a necessary last act or a settling of scores … I thought Ten Years After was a sequel to The Three Musketeers but that’s not quite right (the titles of the two sequels are Twenty Years After and Ten Years Later), so I’ve obviously conflated it with the name of Alvin Lee’s English blues rock band …

( I like the sun spinning on my shoulder … )

Ten Years After

Ah babe I am hardly the same
my heart has pounded its fist so much harder
and longer
                       my eyes are breaking
with blood
small boys leap around my ears
I set the sun spinning on my shoulder
like an uncle at a party with a plate
years crust me
so ludicrously few but still
a reef crawls up
we're going to be different you and I
I suit my face
far better don't you think
we're going back to the green bottles on the beaches
to the clammy nighttime picnics
with the sweat sandwiches
                                                        I'm going to get up 
and leave
the same as I did before
but with so much more authority
then maybe come back in like I own the place
with only one designer hole in my arrogance
and pick away your mystery until I name the killer
even before your opening titles
are through