A Man from Another Part of the World

 I fell in love

With a man

From another part

Of the world

He sat outside my window

And I would listen to him tell stories

And I started to believe the stories

And I started to pretend

I could be in them

Some part of them

Not a large part

But enough to hear him

Say my name

The August air

Would kick up

And the curtains

My mother put up

Would arrive

In each other’s eclipse

Then back to settle

How do you fall asleep

When a man

From another part of the world

Is lighting his cigarette

Feet below you

Warming his hands

On a fire

Because this August

Was a cool August

Like the ones

We used to have

Before you started

Testing your feet

In shoes the color

Of blackberries

His words tuck themselves

Behind your ears

And in the tangles

Of your hair

The notches

In the closet door

That used to mark

Your height

And how you were going

To go up

And never did

In September

They’ll say you have

A fever

But you’re not ill

You’re just thinking

About what it’ll feel like

To walk across the world

Looking for the man

Whose face

You can only put together

Using what little

Creativity

You were given

By your father

The man your mother married

Is a serious man

Whereas your father

Did paintings with whatever

He could come up with

Dirt and the strawberries

That got left out too long

In the kitchen

When your mother

Sent him away

For the last time

She came home

A year later

With a man

She wanted you

To call your father

But he smelled

Of bad medicine

And hair polish

And after that

You slept with the door

To your bedroom

Locked

And the dresser

Pulled in front of it

Because you felt

A sense of dread

That you never did

Get rid of

Not even when you moved out

And across the world

To schools

And mansions

And fire escapes

Where there were no fires

And snowstorms

Where there was lighting

But nothing soft

Nothing cool

Nothing you could

Lay down in

And feel

At peace

The man outside your window

Moves on

After telling himself

A few stories

And you know

You’ll hear those stories again

But you don’t know when

You don’t know when

You’ll find a man like him

Who seems as strange to you

As you seem

To everyone in the world

That says your name

Like it’s a foreign word

Something they can’t pronounce

And have no interest

In understanding