the end of the the known universe

to elaborate for those of you freshly arrived here from the Ithaca Missed Connections

i have adored L for almost two years now, ever since we met in a discussion course. at the time, i decided to follow someone’s excellent advice from the future—post hoc ergo propter hoc–and i fired up the appropriate neuron(e)s to a dreamy, delirious, feverish pitch (or did my inner Valentino Braitenberg do it for me?), and worked up the never-nerve to breach the all-too-familiar stranger barrier of the familar-stranger phenomenon.

“you! who are you and why are we not friends?”

here’s to many more years of being stuck with each other, love.

 

pink horn brigade

i was riding Victoria
drive
on my bike
with a pink kids’ horn

wearing a pink t-shirt
you know, to match
i was riding slowly
because my right hand was guiding a–
let’s call it a–
girls’ bike

it also had a pink kids’ horn

her name was miele

i took the sidewalk
so i could take my sweet time
smell the pink roses

got stuck behind a shopping cart

man he looked like

he’s lost a fight or two in his life

won a scavenger hunt
or three

he started to move aside
i said, it’s ok, i’m going pretty slow anyway.
he then moved aside in a much more pronounced
and deliberate
way

(i guess some people don’t like tailgaters)

“you need a partner,” his coarse voice rasped
i don’t know if he was offering assistance
or if he was commenting
that the pink horn brigade was missing a key member

“she’s gone,” i blurted out, and pedalled away
to the bike shop
to get a shipping box.