Remembrance Based on “Used”

Remembrance Based on “Used”

Samson Malmoli

I once would be happy that you hadn’t gone somewhere

that I loved to go so I could be there on your first

and show you why I always wanted to be there i

t was even more special that there are so many places there are so many

places that we could have gone together

and figured out why we loved to be there

I was laughing at the bustle of SoHo and you were a pigeon on

the flagpole peering down at my hot cheap easy pork dumplings

that was when I was eating meat I would have fed them to you

otherwise

it would have been much more enjoyable to just watch

I used to stand on the corner of the metallic sun in New York

twilight

and I could pass by the newspaper stands outside of a deli

look at the ads and think today would be a nice walk with you

in the country meaning Roosevelt Island or Central Park

it’s easy enough to get lost in the meld of leaves

and your hair

as if it was displacing the movement of the trees around it

like impressionistic or high but so in love

and not full of pressure not the kind of dangerous party I was

used to

in that very museum as I recall the splatters and slow walks

much of it dance steps around tourists or drunken dream sequences

like this new place gave an extra layer to your eyes

to make me hide and play tricks

on you

grew one rose out of your arm and snapped me off with it

and I used to be content with a vase

but it becomes an aquarium and I got homesick

which is all a product of what I used to