Cover Song

Dawn Potter

Once I had a boyfriend (you’ll laugh, I know)

Who strolling at midnight through a yellow-brick alley

Grasped both my cold hands and sweetly bellowed

“My Girl” into the small wind that ebbed and sallied

Between our shadows. I’d known him for a week.

He stared into my eyes and slowly decanted Motown

Into the chill particulate air. Ignoring us, a plane idly streaked

Toward Philly, a bus hooted, a few cars sifted by. I looked down

At our four trapped hands: bowled over, yes, though fighting

A queasy embarrassment. But you know, better than most,

What I mean: how unreal it feels to play at romance, gliding

Slickly beyond your homely self like a ballroom ghost,
As if your everyday, tempted, shivering skin
Couldn’t perform a truer rendition.

[forthcoming in Same Old Story (CavanKerry Press, 2014)]