The Lost and Found

The Lost and Found

I remember the day the heat hung
still, in the air,
and lay limp
like our melting bodies in the graffiti’d
arm chairs
Three almost-men closed their eyes against the summer
taking drags, simultaneously
A brother poured more whiskey
when they couldn’t cough out their sorrows
in the smoke
A lover brushed ash off a tough, barreled chest,
written across it was “MARINE”,
and the soot like snow fell
onto the cedar, shade-kissed deck
Meanwhile my supple, rounded chest,
rose but fell like my mirth
with each transient breath
when I watched him kiss
the golden hair upon her head
I remember watching UV-soaked hands
belonging to a sideways smile
gently mold a spliff
the paper crinkling like folds
on a too-paper face
and sounding like bells
from the campus tower
I remember gulping life away
with the promise of a short-lived happiness
that never came
But mostly I remember that time she sat next to me
and her skirt brushed against my leg.