September 1, 2009

She appeared so suddenly
	and grapes fell from her hair oh
	and clouds from her gown floated
	to the corners of the room,
	and she asked
Who are you?
I told her my name and my nationality and my ancestry
	and my hometown and my college
	and my social security number,
	043-85-2091.
She started to frown, so
I told her my favorite color and baseball team
	and who I voted for in 1984
	and the names of all the people whose
	autographs I could have gotten if I had wanted,
	Jack Klugman, for example.
She said no, who are you
really?
I told her about love and lust and 
God
and the universe, citing
	telling points from both
	personal experience and
	theoretical physics but
She said not quite so
I told her who I thought I was,
	my 26 best theories.
	Three days and nights went by,
	hot tears rolled down my cheeks as
	I told her
	The Story Of My Life, and...
She made a funny face, and shook her head,
	and said
You don’t seem anything like that to me.

Cruiser
Roger Shurtleff
Oil On Panel
28" X 33.75"
(photo by Tim Aguero)

Cruiser
Roger Shurtleff
Oil On Panel
28" X 33.75"
(photo by Tim Aguero)