A Coin from a Fountain, Lost in Time

(to “Junkets,” I would love you, if I could travel back to you)

You took me by surprise, my lover

I knew you were waiting patiently by the fountain

for me to come to you, as you knew I would

both of us slipping quietly away from 

our alternate lives, bound and chained by time

in servitude to the lies we see

as reflections in the mirrors we pass through

as we leave our promises behind us

like ashes from long dead fires

smoldering softly asleep.

I gasped as I felt your arms

encompass me in the dim light of the street torch

your lips burning like sweet poison 

everywhere they touch

and they touch everywhere

and I think: if we should be discovered

at this moment and be killed for our indiscretion

then I would die content

but the street is happily deserted

the tinkling fountain and our sighs the only sounds.

The larkspurs by the fountain are drooping

the hour too late for their lovely faces

You dip your hand in the shimmering pool

and pull up a piece of shiny gold...a coin

of some foreign mark: a bright, thin thing

and you whisper, “Make a wish on it, my love

And I shall throw it back in!”

“No,” I cry. “Let us both wish on it, then

leave me have it so I can 

wish on it always and wish for you!”

So we wish. And I take the coin from him

and leave him there. And through my silvered

mirror I pass again, back to my own age

my own time, my own space, 

my realm of utter unhappiness and as

I wait under electric street lights by fountains

I pull out the coin and wish, wish, wish

I’ve gone back through the mirror many times

Yet, I’ve never seen my lover since 

the night we didn’t throw the coin back in.