Her Name is Barbara

This poem came to me
In a dream of
Thunderstorms

baby hair
like the Hall & Oates song
I once heard, driving through
Ventura Highway, where the
sun shines

earnest and a bit too
too much,
you know?
I wanted to like her more than I do
but I do, when the crowds die down
and it’s just her and I, over cups of Cuban coffee,
talking the day away, talking about our dreams,
as if we were still 16, untouched,
untouchable, unknowable

every day in the back of my mind,
I pray I’m wrong about everything:
the empty rooms, the blood stains,
the furtive Clorox wipes, bundled up against
every overlooked corner

in my world,
we are playing in a field of daisies
as far as the eye can see,
singing Barbra Streisand songs
from musicals, where it’s still okay
to call your nicotine-stained fingers
yellow like Ho Chi Min

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Originally published at https://carolbankswebercoggie.wordpress.com on October 23, 2020.