Lanette

This was my first published poem, based on a night at the Ritz Theater in the small town of Council Grove, Kansas, where I grew up. Yes, Lanette was real and was perhaps early i the line of girls and women with whom I was enchanted.

There's gum beneath the seats
My soles stick to the floor,      
     A history of sweet accidents.
I'll meet you there. She's there. Long hair. Lanette.
Sharing our young age. 

I sit and it begins. My coat is off and over us.
A pea coat. Heavy. Blue. Pulled shoulder high. It's cold.
      My hand. Her hand. So warm and sweet.
I am a child. The film is grade B horror. Oh, horror! 
She pulls up the coat to hide away. Her cheek. My cheek.
 
And through the sleeve we watch the film,
Some monster slain some time ago. Blood drained.
     I see. She sees. We glimpse the life beyond
Through the tunnel of that sleeve.
Karloff wrapped in rags retires. Years fade us safe away.
 
So love there then had come at first.
A sickly smell of sweets and gum.
      A dark pea coat pulled over us.
A sleeve through which I saw out there.
Long hair. Lanette.  

Oasis Journal, Tucson, 2016