Beginning and Ending with a Line from Hera Lindsay Bird

By | 13 October 2020

love comes back
harder
falling in love with you
for the second time
is trying to sail back to the harbour
against a headwind
that I hardly felt as a tailwind
sailing out
so confident
though I’ve never been on a boat
it’s perfect saying things like
“catch my drift?”
& you do
but to borrow another line
from Talking Heads
“how did I get here?”
& now
how do I get back?
how careless of me
to have arrived at this party
so overexcited
but so emotionally
underprepared
(is anyone ever just
‘whelmed’?)
promising myself
these spirits (clearly)
too much for just
one person alone
although I really
go in for that feeling
where I weigh
nothing
at the top
of the trampoline’s vault
when the valium
counterbalances the molly
when left
to my own devices
I get high on my own supply
when in my hands
these tattered sails / this
mostly empty bottle
valiantly I sense
my back’s against the wall
though I know
I’ve never looked cool
standing alone at a party
I stumble outside
to feel the same wind
from earlier in the poem
hit me suddenly
& when that rush subsides
lying down
it’s when the trampoline
stops bouncing
when the boat stops pitching
that’s when
love comes back

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