Manuscript

I will fall in love again
with my unfinished book
and you will find a boy
who says I need you
like an Arab needs cardamon.
And when you laugh
he will say your laugh
is like water splashing
over smooth stones in early fall.
I will only think of you at noon.
as I check my notes,
for nothing must go
unnoticed, not
even the splashing
of your laughter or
the vein that rises
from your thin neck.
In the evening you will walk
with him toward a coppice
where he will kiss you.
The book is finished
and the notes rise from
the page like a swarm of
dark angels to protect me.
.