5.27.2026

it went historically well

A man lies down in my mind. 
We have just made love. 
It went historically well, the kind 
of hand-in-glove 
expertise team workouts can evoke. 
Now we lie still and smoke, 
the ashtray on my belly blue 
as chicory in the dixie cup 
on the deal bureau. True, 
it's a borrowed room. Third-floor walk-up 
as a matter of fact, 
foreign enough to enhance the act. 
Say it's Grand Forks, where I've never been. 
All this takes place in the head, 
you understand. I play to win 
back wicked afternoons in bed, 
old afternoons that were 
shadows on the grass longer 
than home runs lofted out of the park. 
We smoke. The chicory blue goes dark, 
the ashtray deepens 
and the sun drops 
under the rim the way it happens 
like a used-up lollipop 
and the room goes blind 
and a man 
a man lies down in my mind. 
 
[Maxine Kumin {1925-2014} 'This Day Will Self-Destruct', from Our Ground time Here will be Brief]

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