intangible
you always hated gaps in information --
the “intangible,” you muttered --
huddled there, numbers and figures cascading into
dances you could touch, mapping (starless) constellations
but what if i showed you
those abstract beings you so abhor
shapeless fancies, nameless feelings?
what if i told you
the best air resides at lakeside 6 am
not in the cramped quarters of study hall
that ecstasy isn’t grade As and strained smiles
it spreads among brisk walks and hot meals (on cold days) and
catching your breath by that shop you used to frequent
your feverish exhalations fogging up the atmosphere
thatspontaneity isn’t a quick coffee break
it’sthe light of your fingertips on that old piano on 44th street
you played on a (baseless) whimsy
and how that sound still resonates, still echoes
insomewhereland
that the best days of our lives
aren’t journal entries on definitive lined paper;
hyperbolic dissertations with exclamation points in all the right places
It’s a tingle in the small of your spine and the lump
In the base of your throat, threatening to cave in
that memory is an unjustifiable lover,
her victims lay in heaps of impalpable debris, yearning
for things that cannot be held.
It’s not a sepia-toned photograph and a worn-out letter
It’s a work of fiction, a (fleeting) moment
that we try to grab with two hands, the seams overfilling through
the spaces between our fingers
what if I told you
that all this pain
and all this joy
can’t be typed up in a 500-word paragraph
12 pt font, 1 inch margins, do not exceed word limit, please.
that these longings and itchings and lovings –
these gaps of information, the untouchable things –
are real, and they matter, and maybe if you really tried
you could see that the moon looks so much more lovely
rising over sleepy towns than it looks on your astronomy report