Upon Meeting a Friend at a Park

You arose like a demon from the hillside,

Plush, exotic, a twinkle in your eye.

You spooked me with your subdued fervor

And your grotesque amelioration of my heart’s desires.

We played that way for hours in the sultry summer day

Until you planted your foot into the ground

And declared yourself king of the hill,

A stone giant in this dull little world.

I could have torn you down that day,

First, by chopping off your feet,

Then by rolling you down into the valley

And wrapping you in dead leaves.

But I let you have your moment.

You were so self-satisfied,

And I could not hold my idiosyncrasies up to you,

Not in that light,

Not when someone could have been watching.

There was a bit of lust between us, it’s true.

And I would have kissed you, had you made the first move.

But the dissolving resonance of our conversation

Led us only to misplace our private hells for a moment

And get lost in the wild, oncoming dusk.