you wear a flower in your hair

last night:

the sushi restaurant looked like a mexican cantina. (i'm not complaining.)

why is it when i'm with you sunset lasts seemingly forever?

when we had to split ways after dinner, you to your mom's house to watch the musical and me to the airport, you asked to kill the rest of the sake. i love surprises.

you're beautiful and have a mind like a sleek marble counter at midnight but waiting for the check for 30 minutes is painful no matter whom you're with.

mike and i stumbled through the terminal looking for the arrivals board but all the monitors were flickering with cascading white lines. we looked out the window of the corridor and saw the aeroflot plane taxiing towards a gate. you could see mike's mother's hair through the tiny windows.

after everyone had gone to bed and all the vodka was gone i threw my car keys into the jungle-like backyard and walked off down the street, no moonlight, just steamy pavement bathed in orange. i zoned out and when i came to, i was on southwood by eric's house, a block from mine. the row houses were all in various states of demolition or renovation. two middle aged women with small dogs walked past me, out of the night and back into it. i made my way around the building and to the grassy spot where we used to play baseball.

laying in the clover i fell asleep. when i woke it was light out, i looked up and saw the rows of buildings towering over me. this is all so familiar, i thought. but it didn't seem so strange. there was none of that powerful feeling, the weight in my heart that i expected. i stood up and walked about.

it took me five minutes to find our old apartment. i felt ashamed and concerned that my memory was fading. i knocked on the door and a middle aged woman with dyed black hair answered but i felt strange so i apologized. "wrong house." she looked afraid.

walking down bedford in the brightening sunlight i saw a little girl playing by a parked car. when i walked by she said to me, "we're off on a journey to the center of it all!" and made a swooping motion as if she were a superhero. i smiled and kept walking past. at the corner i saw a cop in a crisp, slender black uniform kneeling to check a license plate. as fast as i could i ran towards him, to kick him in the side of the head with a flying leap. and then