The Memory of a Necklace

You wrapped me up in your arms and all I could hear was Dinah Washington because she told it like it was--and so did I

You told me I was remarkable and I didn't believe you for many years and we were always riding the great disconnect--and I knew you loved me the wrong way

You spoke highly of your worthlessness and on most occasions you made no sense and all the sense in the world--and I loved you the right way

You said you'd like to think that your girl, whenever that decade would come, would be a debutante in need of your hands and your being--and I said we didn't need each other

You asked me time and again to tell you how I felt, to profess the sentiments that set my chest on fire--and this time, I did--again

You knew I was stubborn and didn't care for me in spite of it, but because of it

--and I took advantage of that

But we were in a clouded haze of outdated nostalgia that didn't hold its weight here in this contemporary amnesia--and I kept it all to myself, up here, in my attic