Hallucinating in the Dark

you’re only uncomplicated when you get talking about your hallucinations
you tell me that LSD comes on fast and furious
suddenly parting the waters of the dark
it’s an ocean: its desolate vastness turns gentle, transparent
when the distant hill comes over to us, it is soft—you chuckle
laughing the whole night through, puzzling an old man selling cigarettes
we wanted to sit down beneath the only light in this night
on the steps of a hardware store we smoked ordinary cigarettes
and talked about hallucinations—you know, it was a lot of fun
you walked a long way through holes in the air in search of your scarf
the coast was so long and so thin
this small, skinny arm
this hand of a malnourished child
to tell you the truth, it got a little bit hard for us to bear
but we kept on laughing anyhow, kept laughing
the happiness helped us to be so much in love
that when you turned around
wanting to pull me over to you
we would have hugged each another tightly—
if only our arms had been long enough to reach.

HALLUCINATING IN THE DARK