By the time the fanatics got through with you,
there wasn’t much left
of your award-winning smile.

I know, baby.
I know, darling.
It was all
ten years ago,
and we were much younger back then.

Straight out of college,
we were all drinking like writers
over at The Miracle Mile.
We wanted to convince the summer nights
that they could bully September into giving up
a few of those get-out-of-jail-free cards.

September could then talk to October,
and we wouldn’t need God to keep us running.

You and I were endlessly polite,
but we never really spoke.
You were lock, stock and barrel too beautiful
for my sense of humor and weird hobbies.

Though I always thought
it was kind of strange
to take a happy hour crucifixion
and turn it into a party trick.

I believed then
and have recently committed it to memory
that you looked better without
the crown-of-thorns and cruel friends
who knew you back in elementary school.

I understand that half of the joke
came from the fact that your legs were always open,
but I still didn’t think it was all that funny.

Ten years later,
and I always tend to wish
I had said or done something useful.

Instead of just sitting in the back
and drinking until everyone else had left.

I should have knocked a couple
of those cocksuckers down
and taken you home to let you sleep off
everything you ever felt obligated to do.

I could have been a hero,
and I could have been an easy enough
guy to fall in love with.

In reality,
those friends of yours would have
probably eaten me alive.

You probably would have laughed
and called for another round.

Ten years ago,
and you were crazier than any of us.
You were always halfway into a punishment
taken on of your own inadequate freewill.

I think you were the only one
who ever really knew what was going on
and what was being traded off.

I loved you,
and I still remember how warm
your hand felt that one time it touched my arm,
but you were never worth dying for.

Then again,
I’ve been known to question that
whenever I see you around town.

You never recognize me,
and I never try to stand out during the busy season.

Some things never change, eh?

01/30/2010

Posted on 01/30/2010
Copyright © 2024 Gabriel Ricard