beer coated sticky greased table

The perfection of unrequited love
Weighs on my mind like
A heavy beautiful burden.

Softball is coming again.
In a month we will begin again
Our romance that only lasts
Six months of the year.

We will meet weekly.
Speak niceties. Give condolences.
Share news--good and bad.
Encourage each other at bat,
Yelling the things that make us
All laugh.
Sometimes we will smile for
Just one beat too long.

And then in the undressing
Of alcohol.
We will take off our relative masks
And we will be in love for a moment.

Then linger on opposite ends of the
Beer coated sticky greased table, speaking blindly of
The plays of the day.

And then you will go home to your cold, impatient wife
And two beautiful girls.
And I will go home to my menagerie
of lovers that I don’t love.

I can’t wait.

© march 2003

image "frosty mug"