Dashboards and Hammocks - Stephen O'Brien

The streetlights that we hid from cast orange
On the dashboard as we sat and talked, and
Everything else we wanted to be doing
Filled us both with a nervous excitement.

The raindrops on the windows cast shadows,
Turning your skin to a leopard pattern.
The braille of your body was a story,
Intoxicating me like nothing else.

And as the rain stopped falling, spring began
To disappear, we learned our melodies.
Harmony is pretty, but dissonance
Speaks in complex thoughts and cruel beauty.

Summer nights are watching stars and the moon
Lights the ground with it's pale intensity
Against the chirping crickets and dewey
Grass. By Campfires we avoided sitting

Close to, we found enough warmth in touching
Skin to skin. Fitting two in a hammock
Caused us both to fall. I used to wonder
How we'd survive the winter when it came.

I used to think that we would be perfect
Once grown up and confident in our life.
The late nights we borrowed from were always
More than I had hoped for. that is, until
I stopped hoping, and started expecting.
(And when I disappeared, how could you wait?)

As summer begins to breathe once again
I cannot help but hope that there will be
More campfires to watch and more hammocks
That we could lie in. But I don't believe.