clutching pen and pad in the soaking thundershower
Mick taps the tinted limo glass
she’s across the street now
sorry she wanted this autograph
while behind black glass the star says Go
and Mick spins fender-swiped loses his balance
crashes catching his knee his arm
then his face splashes asphalt
she runs across the semi-darkness
arms rising to her face in shock until she cradles
his head his face in blue-white light
lips swelling gritty eyes unfocused
he lurches up she takes his weight
becomes his crutch
they stagger as one on three legs
his right shoe fills with dark red
he’d meant to show her what
he’d still do for her traffic splatters by
despite her stupid marriage
her bittersweet life even her kids
“I’m sorry,” she says
a red light casts its crimson tint
he wants to say he’s okay
his lips don’t work
her umbrella’s gone dropped
or washed away? she looks down
sees his pant leg darkening
blood sloshing out his shoe
she leans him against a drugstore’s
corrugated steel face
her eyes full of awe
he mangles the question,
“Broken glass?”
“You didn’t have to—”
freed by the cold pain
in his lips his knee
his eyes gaze into hers
and hers hold him mesmerized
by what he means
and her voice can’t open
her mouth trembles
and he knows
white rain through streetlight roars
a perfect excuse
to finally put her lips by his ear
“I’m sorry—”
he hears what she’s never said
he tries so hard to hear
that a silence blooms between
her face and his
even the gutters go quietly
“I never told you...
I would—”
He wakes up utterly
despite his draining blood
his lips shiver but ask
“Would you, still?”
it’s unbearable to think
what she might say or not
equally unbearable to not hear
then she can’t hold it back
sinks her face in his neck
lips tremulous sobs opening her mouth
arms hugging too hard
and it is hopeless and he knows it
her breathing desperate
but it is a pure despair
that answers, “Always... always.
If only
we could be—”
and her breaking goes straight through him
a wave he can’t stop drowning in
they have one soul
but they’re submerged
until he hears the rain music
return