here is August soaked with reminder
that the world is material that changes
there’s a flag at half mast
for someone who didn’t even make the papers
the rainy season comes upon us
like it was the tropics like the
flutters and hums on Bleecker
were south beach waves and breezes
the flutters and hums on Bleecker
that becomes a material that changes
Paparazzi armies lay siege to the ineffable
dumpy men made of rain
make glimmer solid in a flashbulb
and Elvis Presley 31 years dead
waits with us to reinsert mystery
into the material substance of our lives
says with us we ache we ache we ache
comes to love us
as we come to love ourselves
by waiting upon those
we desire to both want and be
until memory strikes a pose
and crosses over the borderline
of our love.
John Mulrooney is a poet, filmmaker, and musician living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is co-producer of the forthcoming documentary The Peacemaker from Central Square Films and author of If You See Something, Say Something from the Anchorite Press. He is associate professor in the English department at Bridgewater State University, where he teaches film and creative writing. His work has appeared in Fulcrum, Pressed Wafer, Poetry Northeast, Spoke, Let the Bucket Down, and others.
