"down the road"

*for Suzanne

i had forgotten

how lovely

you look

in my hat;

your hair

a maniacal

auburn nest

grasping for air.

sitting on the sofa,

watching you,

snow burying our lawn,

i remember that time,

long ago,

when i played stieglitz

to your o’keeffe,

shooting you

in an abandoned ruin

off some street,

downtown mobile.

you wandered among

fallen bricks,

naked from the waist up;

your impish tits

not yet evolved

into the motherly breasts

on which i now

lay my head.

(one of those portraits,

you with hands on hips,

head held high

in a silent, defiant

showdown with god,

still hangs on the wall

above my chest-of-drawers.)

afterward,

we drove to your place,

walked into the orchard,

and made love in the grass –

the scent of apple blossoms

sweet on the wind.

 perhaps,

sometime soon,

you, i, and that hat

can take a road trip

to some forgotten urban ruins,

or an abandoned orchard,

camera in hand,

and give me something else

to remember

another sixteen years

down the road.