SoMa Literary Review - Eternity is either a very long time or a very short time

Eternity is either a very long time or
a very short time

By David Livingstone Fore

bank flanked by twin

So there I am walking along the statues of stone

Market street minding my own business w/ of bulls where I

all the other men steps join the other

& women concrete folks

& children 1st steep arrayed

& foremost swimming upstream for to fuck the there

& die up for

& get born when something says I should divert my path to

enjoy a

Something stops collective

sunny

Then starts again breezy

lunchtime like

The guy next to cormorants @

me swivels his head the end of

& so the guy next to a pier trying to

*him* does the same dry out our

& so on long black

& so on wings for

& so on to make

ready

Which meant it could be only *one* thing for another

lone flight

& so I monkey the men out over

& as my head turns my eyes fill w/ wine-

a billowy blue skirt dark

& olive-skin legs seas

& a fury of red hair

a woman walking westward�

t r a v e l i n g s l o w m o t i o n

but not like TV�

deliberatemotion instead�

fluid

& graceful

& strong

Her thick red lips moist w/

spit as her meaty tongue

& jaws move over

a wad of

gum in her mouth like�

well�

what do *you* think I�m thinking right about now?

All shoulders

& hips propelling her body forward

she sustains her

self in

place in

time in

mind so that wherever she is @

this particular instant cannot be imagined w/

out her

the same time each move telegraphs her intent so that the planet may slightly ^shift

& so benefit from

the blessings of

each

fall

each

foot

There�s a blond walking @

her side who has the kind of

looks that if she were to walk into

a bar alone she�d just cold-stop all talk on

the spot but here she does not walk alone which means today hers is a mere rivulet of

prettiness downed in

the flood of

beauty flowing through

the woman in

blue

Anyway the blond says something I can�t make out which makes the woman in

blue laugh

She laughs

& laughs

She folds @

the waist like a taco sell

& then her body whips upright like a fountain w/

her mouth wide open before

folding again

& again as the mirthful hem of

her skirt bounces @

her knees

& her breasts sway under

the fall of

the fabric of

her blouse

She laughs like today is the only day

& there is nothing else in

all the world but to do this thing

When @

last she comes up

for air she locks her eyes onto

mine like she knew all along I�d be standing there waiting

It�s this instantaneous thing electric + mutual + raw

& it strikes me dumb as stone

In the silence she walks on by

The moment passes like all others before�

if only for to make room for

the next

I am buffeted in

her wake as I watch her backside retreat like a beacon inviting

& denying me� an ember growing smaller

& colder� leaving me in

a deeper darkness than ever before

& trying to remember whether eternity is a very long time or

a very short time

David Livingstone Fore lives in Oakland and works in San Francisco. His birth certificate says he was born in Centerville, California, in 1963, although history tells us this cannot be so.