i'd ask you to dance

When rain tap-dances at September windows
I want you in my silent house -
I’ll tell the sofa and the love-seat to use three-inch voices
When they’re gossiping about us,
And if they disobey we both will scald the cushions
With soup spilled out of yellow flowered bowls.
I want to sit with you and watch the clouds move
During long commercial breaks.

There’s a diner in town that everyone goes to -
I want to take you there sometime.
We’ll say “Two, please,” and the waitress everyone knows
Will expose her wealth of drinking-straws and clinking costume jewelry
As she leads us to a table.
If we get two plastic menus colored in with scrambled eggs
We’ll pretend to analyze the prices
And the selection of assorted muffins
As our hands sidle shyly to meet each other
Across the napkins and salt-shakers.
At the end of my cup of coffee is a layer of sugar
That I scrape at with my spoon –
I want to pay the bill even though you’ve already offered.

In the backseat of the car I drive is a book of burned cds -
I want to play you all my favorite songs.
We’ll drive somewhere to someone’s house
Who is having people over –
I’ll smoke a cigarette there and hold back a hacking cough
Because I only smoke at parties that I do not want to go to.
We’ll leave early but I won’t drive you home -
Let’s go to the diner that nobody goes to
At nighttime when it’s late.


I want to watch you and think about these things
As we dance in other people’s mocking arms.