05.07.03 - 5:41 pm
for jennie, on her college graduation.

Tonight,
I'll sit on your front porch
and wish you weren't
leaving.

We'll smoke a couple
cigarettes (menthol, the
trashball cigarette
of choice) and talk about the
old times;
We were unhappy then
but we gloss
over it
and reminisce anyway.

And I'll tell you
how I'll visit, and we'll go
out somewhere
and have a good time.

You'll smile,
and agree, knowing
we'll both get busy.

Things just end.

I should be
happy for you. This is what
you wanted, isn't
it?

No one will know you, where
you're going.

Perhaps someday, you'll end
up living
in a box in New York
with the thirty seven
cats you always
joked about.

You might be happier then.

But before then, I'll
laugh with you, one last time;
we'll do our last
shots of vodka together.
We've got to do the
five in fifteen.

And we'll smoke one last cigarette
before you leave
and watch the smoke
rise
like a silver
lining to the sky.


------------------------

My very good friend Jennie graduates and moves away on Saturday. She's the first of my close friends to leave college.

.drink up baby, look at the stars. // .i'll kiss you again, between the bars.