Life Could Be a Dream (ShBoom, ShBoom) Sweetheart
Lipstick kisses on the mirror at Tibbetts Brook pool.
Chlorinated water -- bubble hot asphalt.
Ingrid the retarded daughter
showing her underpants
to anyone who asked.
Days woven into cloth.
And days like stops on a flute through which the wind blows --
Shouts carried uphill,
Anthony talking dirty in the woods behind the school,
Cigarette butts on a path.
On the lawn, purpled rose petals.
Jazz boys, said Alice. Jazz boys,
and took off her clothes and danced.
Signs in unfamiliar language,
fireflies trapped in glass,
women doing dishes in the kitchen.
Piccolo sounds under a street lamp moon.
© 1998 Diane Kirsten-Martin
This poem was first published by In Vivo, an e-zine