It ruined him.
It ruined absolutely everything good about him.

But she loved him,
swore she heard whatever song was stuck
in his head. While the six thousand car pileup behind them
screamed, loaded guns, pleaded with the heavens
and prepared torches from spare tires.

He sat in the living room,
drank bleach chased with bleach-flavored vodka
and didn’t move from his father’s chair.
For what he believed was a six-day weekend
that only he could see.

But she loved him,
promised to wipe the three a.m. sweat
from his forehead. Promised to marry him in August,
and even promised to see him an hour before the wedding.

Stars were disappearing, he said,
and the survivors of the sky were banding together
to say something ugly about the two of them.

The August wedding was beautiful,
and no one was ever really sure who paid for it.

Her grandmother refused to smoke outside,
and she had some new theories about The Holocaust.
His father didn’t say a word to anybody,
and he left in a stolen car before the reception.

“Some of us just have to get as far away
from the moment as our second heartbeat can carry us.”

Someone told her that when she was a kid.
It would have been heaven that day, she thought, to remember
who, hold them close and wait for a second sentence
to drift on by.

Might be a ridiculous sentiment,
but she saw so many examples of it
on such a gorgeous day
that it kind of made her want to cry
through the whole ceremony.

Didn’t happen though,
and no baby birds were harmed
in the making of the pause
that lives between afternoon and evening.

Although two kids stole a bottle of champagne
and were found a block down the street picking fights with cop cars.

It could be love, she thought,
walking barefoot through the AstroTurf
of a church that ran out of poor wretches to feed.

She smiled when she saw him waiting beside
the friend who didn’t want to be the best man,
and she didn’t once look across the street
to see if he was still watching her poolside
from the motel across the street.

She expected him to leave a message
on her phone later that night.

05/18/2012

Posted on 05/18/2012
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