By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 6 March 2000

Still Here

Damn these tears that trickle down my face
as I look at the pictures you e-mailed me
of you and your family in Arizona
I don't even KNOW you!
I know your name and date of birth
I know that you live in Houston
I forget what you do for a living
because you aren't a fireman or a lawyer or a doctor
or a cop or a porn star
and most everything else is forgettable
to a warped mind like mine
I know you have an excellent vocabulary
and have read The Great Gatsby
but didn't know what I meant
when I jumped up from my computer to
look at the sky
and told you about the pink clouds
and said I'd like to wrap you up in one
and push you around
Then the tears fell AGAIN, damn salt
When you played a Skid Row song for me on
your guitar
over the phone
then you really did me in
with "Wonderwall"
but the spell was altered somewhat
when I read you my poems
and you didn't say anything
until I asked

I hate these tears
they tell me
in a taunting singsong
lisp
that after all the hell
I have been through
I'm still not numb
there are cracks
in my wall

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