Though it’s all too clear how unimpressed you are by a cri de cœur
and wafting away unhugged is from your perspective de rigueur
of schemes to rendezvous with you I’m still a restless entrepreneur
The thought of you converts my favorite main dishes into hors d’oeuvres
My addiction to the tingling you induce is a fait accompli
Each drifting day is another page in the secret book whose dénouement
never arrives, while your fleeting glances lock me into this unfinishable roman à clef
The idea that any one remembered moment at a party or picnic was
my sole forever lost chance to touch you must be a cul de sac
When my projects for a prudent career try to stand up
your voice remembered administers the coup de grâce
and my mélange of bright ideas becomes a mere potpourri
How I would love to believe this dance is a folie à deux
The way you stride across Memorial Drive is a tour de force
but glimpses across traffic make a paper-thin raison d’être
Your recent exit is implicit in many a mise en scène
It’s as if you heard me approaching for a tête à tête
and you slipped into the elevator with your tall boots and sangfroid
Always you get to reculer and I never seem to mieux sauter—
Still I will keep an eye out for you on every rez-de-chaussée.
Mark Halliday, “La Marquise de Gloire” from Thresherphobe. Copyright © 2013 by Mark Halliday. Reprinted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
Source: Thresherphobe (The University of Chicago Press, 2013)
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