Ricky Garni

In the movie, they go to the back of the house
where it is dark so they can make out
until her parents come home and he must
sneak out through the little white gate
and get on the train
and go back to the war
but first a kiss

In the movie, the boy and the girl sit on the park bench
and look at the sun rise over the ocean. Once the movie
was complete, the boy left for New York, and the girl for
Idaho, and the park bench was removed and used for
firewood in Maine.

The color of upholstery ("ribbed Morocco bolstering
and pleated inserts") was often like chocolate and
the shape of the ridges were similarly chocolate bar-like.
Panels ran along the sides of the station wagon that
were either made of wood
or of a wood facsimile ("di-hoc mahogany appliqué
with 'maple' fiberglass trim.") Like chocolate, or

the impression of chocolate, or pancakes, or
the appearance of pancakes, It gave comfort.

On the driver's side left, an antennae was often extended
fully and suggested that we were in touch with worlds that
we couldn't possibly comprehend or reach; it made a faint
buzzing sound in the wind. This too, was a pleasant sensation,
rather than a fearful one.

Yet between the mother and the father, tucked away
center deep, was a cigarette lighter which reminded us
that this could all go away someday, and do so in a burst
of light, but not if we managed to keep everything as it was
and where it was meant to be, and enjoyed the things that
seemed like chocolate and wood, and warmth, the sensation
of those things, those things which seemed to be our slight gifts.

As you write a note at the kitchen table
and you hear the sound of a leaf
falling to the earth

Don't blame yourself
there's nothing you
could have done