The City She Was

Division

9 Museum of Lost Acquaintance We’ll be erasing the past, so I’ll insist on paying. You’ll stare at me with brace face and forgive me. Whisper that secret name we learned from the movies. I’ll forgive you. We’ll puppet voices and mug shots,and you can forgive and forget.We’ll bury our past. We’ll surprise your grandmother’s house with paint. Grateful, you’ll return the sweater you said you lost at the Mormon dance. I’ll live under a blanket. We’ll wear matching Izods to Sadie’s Dance and french by the trophy case. I’ll show you pictures of my dog. We can walk through the mall and pierce our ears. We’ll deliver pizzas in a white Corolla. We’ll take the bus or catch a ride with a stranger who strokes my bra strap. You’ll ride my handlebars or I on the back of your Vespa. We’ll try for summer jobs with the city and not find any. We’ll listen to the Doors and pretend it’s the sixties. We’ll pretend we do drugs and surf. Your dad will drive us to the boardwalk to buy skateboards. You’ll reject my boyfriends and I’ll reject your girlfriends. We’ll pretend to like each other’s lovers. We’ll pretend to understand poetry and carry notebooks on buses and talk in fake accents. We’ll decide to start a Bauhaus tribute band but quit because we fight over who’ll be lead singer. You’ll start one behind my back, I behind yours. ...