Then what? Then another cigarette
before I finish another scene from my life
as if it were written by Moliere. It’s true—
when I’m alone, I pretend to speak French.
Isn’t that sad? But everybody else
is lying in bed listening to the rain, too.
It really is horrible out. The wind
would make kitschy sculpture of your
umbrella if you were this lonely.
And the clouds, wholly cumulonimbi!
If worse comes to worst, remember—
I’ve given my body to sex, not science.
You’ll be advised what to do
in event of an actual emergency. For that
matter, say the rain stops. Say
the echo of wind that thwarted Kublai
Khan & sank the Spanish Armada
sails off to Madagascar.
Then what? Then another cigarette
before I finish another scene from my life
as if it were written by Moliere. It’s true—
when I’m alone, I pretend to speak French.
Isn’t that sad? But everybody else
is lying in bed listening to the rain, too.
It really is horrible out. The wind
would make kitschy sculpture of your
umbrella if you were this lonely.
And the clouds, wholly cumulonimbi!
If worse comes to worst, remember—
I’ve given my body to sex, not science.
You’ll be advised what to do
in event of an actual emergency. For that
matter, say the rain stops. Say
the echo of wind that thwarted Kublai
Khan & sank the Spanish Armada
sails off to Madagascar.
Then what? Then another cigarette
First appeared in Wind Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 56, 1986.
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