The Dog-Roses

This is a mimetic written in the style of Dean Young. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/dean-young

The Dog-Roses

We, where the sea meets the earth, sat

sidelong on the boardwalk and sipped

on chocolate cones, yours with raspberry

sprinkles. I wondered that whales live on 

our same planet - these enormous blue 

hunks of meat monumental and making 

music of their own. those pesky unconvincing

skyscrapers sheer towers of waterlike glass never

quite impressed me you murmured even 

as the collateral that was my heart

melted into the sand, but I’ve been told 

two is better than one, but what about 

noses, would I smell better with two? is

three better than one, too? but what about

breasts, I could have triplets then 

It was striking, your strange hair under

salt and sun and the acid rain, which 

always smelled so foul to drive away my thoughts

leaning on the steering wheel I hold my 

obelisk of capitalism gleaming in sight,

a comfort, reminding of my glorious potential,

dashing good looks, and guarantee of

failure. You didn’t like the styrofoam taste

of the end so you tossed it without looking

into the gaping bill of a gull who had probably

seen plenty of whales, I have never seen one even

blow water and fish guts and kelp out of its’ head

which is what I hear they do, sucking in great 

quantities of seawater for a spattering of teeny

tiny krill. I suppose I should know. I’m a 

telemarketer. my plump face and the rosehips 

fade into a stain on the bench where we

never sat again, forever is a very long time