novella
Active Member
An Upstate Town
A person's name in broken neon
over the flyblown motel
is just a coincidence, that's all,
designed by the fates to spook me,
or perhaps I knew about it long ago and forgot
and then it lived secretly there,
Only now saying, yes, remember me.
The very trees shake as I drive in
the wind under everything, from unnatural directions,
and girls ghostly white who seem to have stopped
in the day sun shivering under a dark sky.
What vampires have they been dating?
I remember this place, having
spent a summer here once.
There were no swimming holes
or blue pools or crashing waves,
just the dark cool grass under some trees
and me shivering, unable to breathe right
or raise my head to look straight on.
Even then I trusted no one
which, it turned out, was the right thing to do.
Maybe something was broken before I got here,
Maybe it was lying in wait, knowing
I would kick back those dry leaves and stretch out to rest,
Thinking it was safe, and then it wormed its way in.
Or did I once drive in by chance, as now,
bearing spoiled gifts, unknown even to me,
yet wanting a place to bury them.
A person's name in broken neon
over the flyblown motel
is just a coincidence, that's all,
designed by the fates to spook me,
or perhaps I knew about it long ago and forgot
and then it lived secretly there,
Only now saying, yes, remember me.
The very trees shake as I drive in
the wind under everything, from unnatural directions,
and girls ghostly white who seem to have stopped
in the day sun shivering under a dark sky.
What vampires have they been dating?
I remember this place, having
spent a summer here once.
There were no swimming holes
or blue pools or crashing waves,
just the dark cool grass under some trees
and me shivering, unable to breathe right
or raise my head to look straight on.
Even then I trusted no one
which, it turned out, was the right thing to do.
Maybe something was broken before I got here,
Maybe it was lying in wait, knowing
I would kick back those dry leaves and stretch out to rest,
Thinking it was safe, and then it wormed its way in.
Or did I once drive in by chance, as now,
bearing spoiled gifts, unknown even to me,
yet wanting a place to bury them.
