Under cover of purple evening
Pull into the parking lot, stride into the store,
The shamble of strangers and pulsing bells
Ding - �We�re sorry you have activated Wal-Mart�s inventory control system��
You stand behind the perfume counter, hands resting on glass
You are tired on your feet, and yet you smile and nod,
Laugh in the appropriate places
�Did you find everything OK?�
Never seeing me.
Until I take you by the hand as you shed your work vest
And we walk into the fresh night
Into the relative silence
Our path lit by milky fluorescent light
�How was work?� and a sigh
The hum of cars in the distance,
And the far-off babble of the constant crowd
In a love too real to protest, we sit quietly in the falling dark
On lawn chairs with vinyl cushions
Displayed outside the grocery store
Next door
A crossword on the table, and my arm about your shoulders
This is the moment,
The perfect moment,
As the fire from a star
Ten trillion light years away
After speeding through the icy vacuum of the void
Finally reaches our horizon for one brief, aching second
We were the only ones to see it
The moon, in her maternal loveliness, rises,
Greets us both with ample arms
And I pet your hair and smell you
So far away from wars and politics
We sit in a desert town in Idaho
Unnoticed by the earth
In our parking lot, still warm from the day
Undetected by the long, long highway
I sit with you and feel
The weight of your head
Resting on my shoulder