City Girl

               after Lucie Brock-Broido



by Faith L. Smith





Towns pass pretty girls you wish

you’d love more, expanding their arms soft

against the wind—Tamia, Marie, Faith

dark-haired beauties who close their eyes

like girls do when their dreams start to persist.

In Gary, Indiana, summer will happen

easily. The first muggy night lingers on

the brink of sunset, drops

down to the dark sky, settles

with the moon above the outhouse.

You met a woman here once

in the days when love came back

& the hearts of the body bloomed with innocence.

Everyone loved it for a little while.

She danced for you here

one cold morning in February, wrapped her warm lips

around your cheek, sang passionately to you.

She said, I found myself in this song.

Love walked in with women differently back then.

It wasn’t at all forgotten.

All the way from here to paradise, her rhythm,

against your body carries your spirit, rises

like an angel from heaven, white & pure on the road.





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