That One Night (for M. B. Martins)

There was one night
when the moon didn't rise
and it rained until the middle of the next afternoon.
I woke up alone in bed, and after stumbling around all morning, we met up again
in the middle of a puddle.

it was still raining

Your ankles were white, white as alabaster. Your eyes were tired
for a lot of reasons.
But then you splashed,
and the puddle and the silence shattered,
and I wanted to carry you
all the way through life until the poppy-fields bloomed into your dreams.

But instead we went down to the dead-endstreet
and put flowers next to a weeping Mary
and the body of a dead Jesus.

and then it stopped raining.