I don’t need your answered prayers or the chains your lover wears.
I don’t need your rings of gold or the secrets that you hold.
—Bruce Springsteen
Grabbing my hand,
you pull me across the street
to the Psychic’s front door.
She allows us three questions
for ten dollars apiece. Sequestered,
behind her closed curtains,
we both ask, independently,
about love, career, and finances.
Later, comparing our futures
over cold shrimp and red wine,
you play a Tony Bennett CD
and we watch the setting sun
spread a golden pathway
to the Porcupine Islands,
highlighting the swaying lobster boats
and the sound of lapping waves.
This is where, one would think,
the romance begins, but
sliding into our respective beds,
we open our books and read,
like an old married couple, content
just knowing the other is there,
occasionally chatting about
thoughts crossing our minds.
When we turn out the lights,
I see your homoerotic dreams
of a man across the ocean
and you detect my piercing
thoughts of a phantom spouse.
We both search and wonder:
Will we ever find a love
as comfortable as this?
Dianalee Velie is the Poet Laureate of Newbury, New Hampshire, where she lives and writes. She is the author of six books of poetry, Glass House, First Edition, The Many Roads to Paradise, The Alchemy of Desire, Ever After, Italian Lesson, and a collection of short stories, Soul Proprietorship: Women in Search of Their Souls.
MUSEPAPER POEM PRIZE #69
Velie is a two-time Musepaper Poem Prize Winner!
Musepaper Poem Prize #43
Musepaper Poem Prize #69
JANUARY 20, 2023 / MUSEPAPER POEM PRIZE #69 / "BAR HARBOR FORTUNE" © 2022 DIANALEE VELIE