Poem: Tulsa

A long and lovely poem about how I often feel


Tulsa

I’d like to know you naked,
so I could better understand you dressed
Clothes get between us,
hiding what’s behind your eyes and mine
I ask you where you’re from,
you say Tulsa, what’s in that?
Tulsa’s oil wells and money to me,
Growing-up and broken-hearts to you
How could I understand, and so
we have a drink, never finding us

I’d like to take you home, slowly take off
all your clothes and Tulsa
The blouse is too expensive,
your jeans too plain, your underwear all silk
They hide from me the one who cries
at sappy songs and loves old dogs
Take off my shirt and jeans, but slowly,
they’re not made as well as I
They speak of other times, other places,
nothing of the man that’s me

I’ll hold you close, we’ll make love,
take the long way, twice ‘round the park,
to drift asleep, tangled arms and legs,
listening to our rhythms rise and fall
Sounded out in quiet breaths, gentle murmurs,
touching, always touching
When we wake, I’ll know the perfume
of your smells and tastes and you’ll know mine
Cautions gone, the gentleness behind our eyes,
a gift we’ve given, each to each
So, I’d like to know you naked
Then I’ll understand your clothes and Tulsa
We’ll have fallen through each other’s eyes
I’ll see your world as you’ll see mine,
conceiving how this girl became a woman,
how this boy became a man
The road-map of our undressed selves,
spread across the sheets and studied
The lines from here to Tulsa and beyond,
a myriad of known routes to share
Poetry Collection: Corner of My Mind
This poem is included in
Jim Freeman's
poetry collection

CORNER OF MY MIND
available here in print
or as an e-Book
in your favorite formats.