Some disenfranchised evening

You will meet a stranger

wearing a strapless dress

the color of your hair and lipstick

which are a yellowish shade of green.

When she speaks she’ll say I’ve been

thinking of the word ‘antediluvial.’

You will say I’ve been thinking

about the way the word ‘porous’ rhymes

with ‘Boris.’  Clearly, both of you

are poets. So both of you are as

vague as gossamer; and both

of you wonder where to look

for the bright side; what are

the body’s boundaries; what makes

Being so much more attractive than

Doing.  You will remember

meeting her many years ago, by

a river the color of  spiritual

boredom.  This time her feet aren’t

made of papier-maché, and she

isn’t eating the horse-flies.  You

will have a brief discussion about

the eccentricities of death.  You will be

best friends forever.  Ah Pasternak,

ah Karloff, ah experimental Japanese

band from the 1990s.