I Really Can’t Recall

He had an unlimited repertoire of snake questions,

                                  and I knew nothing of King Lear

making fun of the way his nose crinkled: when he called me a bitch

calling out all the defensive           little     quirks            of our dance

 

He asked me if snakes could "learn to read."

I said,                                             "Only as much as lizards.

Maybe a little slower cause they have to move their head to see."

 

I talked about the way moonlight and the planets in

                                                                  September

                                                 always made my head spin

As if rocks in the sky told me more than reading up on my Shakespeare

Watching the serpentine way your wavy hair cast shadows on the dictionaries we were browsing

looking for words dead poets used to make up and trying to decide if we were worth

                                 making up our own words.

We were. At least outside of September.