Rainy Afternoons

And reminiscences begin:
Blondie, The Cars, some late seventies
Groove that infuses
Coffee in the rain.
Water soaking roads
Flood warning on the plain,
Tornados tearing a riff
Off of roofs - awful rot
That feeds steamed
Rice on another memory-parched
Day, Toronto, October.

There are many voices:
The loud kitchen patron,
Recollecting a wedding banquet
Fried chicken livers and flotilla of wants
The friends frizzling on
Warm morning conversations
The coffeemaid borrowed from Britain
(future memories of youthful adventures)
A Japanese host serves as cashier
The silent tapping of my neighbor’s keyboard

How old do you need to be to be forgotten;
How old before you are the vampire among the victims;
How old before your speech no longer conforms; your thoughts
Are stripped of context; your vows creaky and forlorn
Atlanta on a February morning.