Picnic Table

We sat outside
At the picnic table
Drinking beer and smoking cigarettes
I asked you to take out your barrettes, you said yeah, and as you glanced up
Your hair danced up and down
I smiled, you got shy, you said don t smile
I said why, you said just don t
I said okay, I won t
And I smiled
And your skin caught like wildfire
Like there was no need for the sun
You placed a finger on my cheek
You said that had to be done
You carved something like a comma
And I wondered what would come
We went inside, I pet your cat
You said I think she s lonely
I think she needed that
I said are you lonely too?
You said, no girl, that kind of talk won t do
You said the futon s kind of lumpy
But the bed s pretty smooth
And then I thought about her laughing heart and all the tears that make us grow
And I looked into your smiling eyes and all the lines that take me so, so
So much further than I intended to go. I said
thanks for the bed
I think the lumps will have to do
You said
it s better that way
I said yeah, I think so too…"
And then I thought about her laughing heart
And all the lines that make it
And I tucked that heart into the cradle of my brain
Cause I d never want to break it
But I still picture your hair sometimes
Dancing all wild in the dark
I still wonder about that comma carved
So curiously hard and sweet
And yeah, sometimes I finish that sentence
You left there on my cheek
Cause you know us poets
We like our moments complete