Of Bookmarks and Gas Cards

[jessewestend]

Your valentine bookmarks my collection of Pablo Neruda translations...
Its uneven cardboard edges obscuring the page in English,
while I fumble with the original Spanish instead.
I read the words outloud, letting each palabra roll off of my tongue
like a wave wrestling with the reef.
I feel the universal translation of meter,
the rhymeless beauty of consonance and aliteration
and I taste the wine on your lips
siempre, always, siempre, always...
I want my hands to read you like a good poem,
but we are not who we were any longer
and your pages now belong in another man's library...
Closing the poem book, I roll towards my computer, hit play
and watch a video of you smoking.
My heart quivers and i feel the chills again,
I know that its impossible, that you are impossible,
and that its best we just stay pen pals...
and yet...
somewhere...
deep
in the
back
of my mind....
I am calculating miles per gallon and my ETA.