If there’s something you need,
let me see it in a dream.
Let it be covered in sequins,
high-kicking its way to fame.
Let it jump out like the horror-film villain
that sends you shrieking every time.
Alarm me with the ringing I heard
last night when you were gone.
If there’s something you pine for
let me smell it on the lake
rippling past as I float
on a shredded cloud.
Let me breathe it in
from behind your ear,
from the mound of muscle
shouldering your country road.
Overcome me with the syrupy scent
of lines running down
the trunks of maples.
If there’s something you left unsaid,
let me find it in slanted marks
from your favorite pen
with the imprint of your hand
cocked to one side, leaning
to the left of the L in love.
Leave me with a dream
that kicks me
all the way to shore.
Click here to read Timothy Nolan on the origin of the poem.
Image by Pixabay on pexels.com, licensed under CC0.
Timothy Nolan:
This poem started after listening to an interview with Nikky Finney and Ross Gay. Something that came up towards the end was the loss of handwriting. Finney spoke of the handwritten letters she had from her father, and how dear they were to her because while he is gone, the evidence of his hand remains in them. I started to think of the people I love and their handwriting. Somehow it turned into a love poem, thinking about my husband’s unusual handwriting, and what I might find in his hand were he to die before me.
Timothy Nolan (he/him/his) is a writer and visual artist living in Palm Springs, California with his husband and their rescue dog, Scout. He has exhibited extensively for three decades and his work is in the collections of the DeYoung Museum of Art in San Francisco, and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. He’s been a fellow at Yaddo, Ucross, and Djerassi. His poems appear in The Hudson Review, Fourteen Hills, Puerto del Sol, and Roanoke Review, among others.
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Wow…I wish I had known of your talents during all those years we worked together. The Secret Life of Timothy Nolan …!!! This poem is so lovely.