I'd just got done fixing things up in the office
thought I'd take a little stroll down in Jericho
clear my head, mull a couple things over:
sketch out a plan for a productive weekend alone.
Things continue to occur whether you want them to
or not, as the case may be, either suits me fine.
I went into the bookshop that they called
'The Last Bookshop' - where the girls wear joggers
and joggers pick up books and cluck
I made a beeline past the bestsellers and the
not-so-bestsellers to the bargain basement;
hardly read anymore, but you might find something...
Not worth reading, but heartwarmingly quirky
that would give you the give you needed for the day.
That was where I saw it, resting on some old 45s.
A battered, off-brand CD: "Timeless Love Songs"
Picked it up, looked for a tracklist, there was none.
What kind of sketchy bootleg nonsense is this?
And how was I supposed to tell if they really were
timeless lovesongs, or some naif version of timeless
So I bought the thing, of course, it was only
a couple quid, and i needed coasters anyway
leaving enough coffee rings around the place as it is
wished godspeed to the screaming ambulance,
Promptly forgot about it.
Weeks passed,
people didn't return phone-calls
nights and lights shifted and swirled in my eyeline
until, one evening. dreading the next day as that
is what evenings are ever for, I found the thing
smiled, remembering the bookshop and how
i really should return, and I put the CD on.
I suppose my body must have stayed where it was.
I am too scientific to believe in a non corporeal soul
and to be honest it just raises more questions
than it answers, to believe in such impossible,
irrational things. But, whatever, a consciousness, then
a part of me was separated and drifted off into
this strange, aether
outside of time, the place
where the truly timeless lovesongs could play
i say 'songs'. No duration; at least, none that I
could make out, from where my body lay, no
time was just the fourth dimension, nothing special about it
me and the lovesongs, indiscrete, indiscreet, indiscriminate
we came and went as we pleased, and bore
amiable witness to all the instants of note:
all the moments love had to offer, from the first
foray of eye contact to the final battle, final parting.
I never did make it back to my body.
I won't miss the old fellow; I'm sure
someone can put it to good use,
avoid the coffee rings, maybe.
all of it in a jiffy, or an eternity, we knew not which
and when the world crumbled or lit up golden
for the lovers that we saw, the soundtrack that
they could not hear - sound beyond sound
echoed, timelessly.
