poem I wrote sitting across the table from you
if I had two nickels to rub together
I would rub them together
like a kid rubs sticks together
until friction made combustion
and they burned
a hole in my pocket
into which I would put my hand
and then my arm
and eventually my whole self––
I would fold myself
into the hole in my pocket and disappear
into the pocket of myself, or at least my pants
but before I did
like some ancient star
I’d grab your hand
Copyright © 2013 by Kevin Varrone. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on October 17, 2013. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.
"I was at a coffee shop working on a long poem: I overheard someone say that bit about rubbing two nickels together, and glad for the distraction, I thought way too much about that saying and somehow it turned into a kind of love poem. It's a procrastination poem, I suppose, but love poems always seem to be for me."
—Kevin Varrone