LOST POEM

	By Armine Iknadossian


	I looked for you
	under the barstool
	underneath my wine glass
	you were mine for one half hour

	stolen by an oil-streaked man 
	in an olive-colored suit
	pinky ring winking 
	who molested you with his eyes

	extracted you from the wedge of my pocket
	smoothed you out 
	decoded you in the alley
	outlaw rhythm of my beating eyelashes

	my bracelet trailed your shapely limbs 
	as I transcribed you from the smoky air 
	found you floating above the candles
	let you fall out of your gown

	loser to the noise and clatter we are summoned
	to grace 
	amidst flowering pots 

	you are the wink of an eye at midnight
	the end of a bumpy road is home at dusk
	the balmy air a shawl around your neck
	the streets that catered to your history
	the zipping of crickets
	the enchantment of the invisible green behind your house
	this is your home
	where skin sticks to skin sticks to everything
	black ovals on paper with curvy legs
	so the street lamp glows 
	and black is the color of night
	so you are free here
	the railroad tracks reveal your moveable nature
	the sun rises in the hour of red
	and fantasy is a sliver of lemon sugared
	knuckles are guardians of hands
	living under bridges of skin
	the vigilante vein patrol that screams impact to a wall
	a hole in the afterbirth of jazz
	in the horn blows of the mad
	when your eyes left stains on your cheeks
	and necks were meant for kissing
	the rope is knotted
	a footstool is a sad friend realized


--
Armine Iknadossian was born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised in Pasadena,
California.  She received her BA from UCLA and an MFA from Antioch
University Los Angeles. She has just completed her first manuscript,
Gnosis. Publications include Pasadena City College's Inscape, UCLA's
Wisteria, Cal State Northridge's Edges, Lounge Lit: An Anthology of
Poetry and Fiction by the Writers of Literati Cocktail and
Rhapsodomancy and zaum. "The Return" was a finalist in Backwards City
Review's annual poetry contest.