Scott Laudati: Two Poems

can we live like this?

it didn’t take so long
did it?
your story’s
in your
smile,
those lips once said
“i’ll
never
love again.”

i know
you’re a fighter, kid.
life
didn’t take
its time
with
you. but you’re
not so bored,
there’s still a light
in there.
sure,
you
can sway
like the
breezy
palm trees
of your hometown, but i don’t
want to
know
if you can bend …
can you break?

i remember
your greasy
hair from
the plane,
your legs crossed
on the white sheets,
the slow surrender
of your eyes
when you realized
i thought
you
were beautiful.
it was sudden
and eternal.
i chose you
to erase
all my sorrows.
will you?
you see
life in the raw
and that makes me
trust you.
we know
when
we
find
our own.

i think
about what it
will be like.
the coffee.
the date.
the booze.
the bed.
the cigarette.
but
i can
leave those
for the men
that came
before.
i
want
your window,
to
watch
the breeze
through the leaves
of those palms
and wonder
if this life
actually
existed before
you got here.

*

a garden east of eden

if i could do it all over again
there’s not much i would do the same.
i would say i love you a lot more
to a lot less people.
i would only find brick walls on
black and white streets
to kiss against.
i would buy a shag carpet every day
and lay in it.
and i would never eat until my chest was
thin as paper
so you could see that
my heart
looks
like
a heart.

and every time i say
the house will always smell like fresh flowers
i’ll mean it
and every car door i can open for you
i’ll open it
and every cage that holds a turtle
i’ll free it
and every dog that has no home
i’ll adopt it
and every door in the house that isn’t painted yellow
i’ll paint it
and every bike that has a basket
i’ll fill it
and when i promise you i’m over it
i will be.

but if i said
i don’t want you to love me any more than you do
i’d still be lying,
and i’d hope that you were still smarter than me,
and you wouldn’t change a thing.

It's a partial cover of a book written by Scott Laudati
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Author photo credit: Caitlin Burke

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