Headline Poem 8/31/14 -- In my twenties

This weekend the movie Wild premiers in Telluride, Colorado. I can hardly wait to see it, and since the movie is about Cheryl Strayed in her twenties, it inspired today's poem. 

In my twenties

I held your face in between 

my steady hands, 

calloused from distractions 

of my work, 

but otherwise smooth. 

I needed you,

but didn't think you 

needed to know. 

So I didn't tell you 

    until that day in the rain 

when you 

blew smoke in my face 

and 

told me you loved me, 

but had to leave. 

You wondered out loud if 

that was the biggest mistake 

you'd ever make. 

Then

 we took a walk 

and made    love down by 

the sycamore tree 

where crickets mocked 

us 

and bats quietly flew East.