My Bare Soles

If it had been yesterday
I would have been but an imagination
But that night, my flesh fashioned to the humidity
As the crickets hummed their low vibration
And the moon's evil grin stirred the tips of my nerves,
For air they begged

—breathe—

To what term do you know best?
You didn't directly ask, but emphatically I acquiesce
What had been last year my pelvis twisted to erase
Her favorite song, long forgotten guilt
Indeed, I sung as my curves lifted from the deep indentions of cotton
Let me go—and, so, my stomach stretched and back bent
While fingers dripped the salt from mesh and skin

The morning hint tip toed across the floor
Hinges hollowed out a shallow squeak
My state of mind held me through tomorrow's half luminescence
As I kicked off my shoes to feel the dirty pavement spin under my toes—
and soiled it did—my bare soles

And what summer could it be, without that one night only?
My heart finding content with life's complexity
Another chapter, by chance, I scratch down on blue lines and type
With my beloved friend—
Who twirled under the same warm bright night
While mellow tunes danced between tin walls and leather
To embrace choice, laughter, and to enjoy what it is
This is "last-year's" lesson—gracefully mastered
And if I could choose, nothing I would change

Susie E.