La Marquise de Gloire

Though it’s all too clear how unimpressed you are by a cri de cœur

and wafting away unhugged is from your perspective de rigueur

of schemes to rendezvous with you I’m still a restless entrepreneur

The thought of you converts my favorite main dishes into hors d’oeuvres

My addiction to the tingling you induce is a fait accompli

Each drifting day is another page in the secret book whose dénouement

never arrives, while your fleeting glances lock me into this unfinishable roman à clef

The idea that any one remembered moment at a party or picnic was

my sole forever lost chance to touch you must be a cul de sac

When my projects for a prudent career try to stand up

your voice remembered administers the coup de grâce

and my mélange of bright ideas becomes a mere potpourri

How I would love to believe this dance is a folie à deux

The way you stride across Memorial Drive is a tour de force

but glimpses across traffic make a paper-thin raison d’être

Your recent exit is implicit in many a mise en scène

It’s as if you heard me approaching for a tête à tête

and you slipped into the elevator with your tall boots and sangfroid

Always you get to reculer and I never seem to mieux sauter—

Still I will keep an eye out for you on every rez-de-chaussée.

Source: Thresherphobe (The University of Chicago Press, 2013)