Love, 20¢ the First Quarter Mile by Kenneth Fearing

Love, 20¢ the First Quarter Mile by Kenneth Fearing

All right, I may have lied to you, and about you, and made a few
pronouncments a bit too sweeping, perhaps, and possibly
forgotten to tag the bases here or there,
And damned your extravagance, and maligned your tastes, and
libeled your relatives, and slandered a few of your friends,
O.K.,
Nevertheless, come back.

Come home. I will agree to forget the statements that you issued so
copiously to the neighbors and the press,
And you will forget that figment of your imagination, the blonde
from Detroit;
I will agree that your lady friend who lives above us is not crazy,
bats, nutty as they come, but on the contrary rather bright,
And you will concede that poor old Steinberg is neither a drunk,
nor a swindler, but simply a guy, on the eccentric side, trying to
get along.
(Are you listening, you bitch, and have you got this straight?)

Because I forgive you, yes, for everything,
I forgive you for being beautiful and generous and wise,
I forgive you, to put it simply, for being alive, and pardon you, in
short, for being you.

Because tonight you are in my hair and eyes,
And every street light that our taxi passes shows me you again, still
you,
And because tonight all other nights are black, all other hours are
cold and far away, and now, this minute, the stars are very near
and bright.

Come back. We will have a celebration to end all celebrations.
We will invite the undertaker who lives beneath us, and a couple
of the boys from the office, and some other friends,
And Steinberg, who is off the wagon, by the way, and that insane
woman who lives upstairs, and a few reporters, if anything
should break.