poem of love for mpls

we were at best
at first
at
odds
wanting nothing
if anything
to do with you
- pushing you away
and kicking your streets
telling you each and every moment
how you paled in comparison to the previous
drinking just so as not to see your face
even your air stung
even your club called c.c. brought ache -

as to when
it shifted
as to when
this kind of disdain
turned to some kind of
love
was somewhere in the middle streets
of uptown and lyndale

as to when the some kind of love
turned to
complete
balanced
dependence
give and take
equal reciprocation...
was somewhere between
35th and bloomington
and
14th and elliot...

you are no longer the one
there is another now
another whose river calls
another whose streets beg to be explored
another whose side alleys gesture alluringly
another whose air gasps to be breathed

but you will always be this one
of
6
or
7
years
giving and taking so much
you will always be this one
who opened a closed heart
who made beautiful a country
that had become a place to reject
after 8 years with others

and it is because of you
that now here
can be embraced
that now this seoul
can be known fully
by this soul

numerous
have been the places loved
numerous have been the
drunken one night explorations
in lands that can never really be described
whose scent still lingers
whose rivers still beckon

but yours
is a
river
a park
a lake
a clustering of
bodies
loved so
ardently
loved still
loved always

never fading in forgetting
always rising
up in dreams

never diminishing in time's ticking
always
always
always

whispering
"and how... we loved."


kim thompson 14.49 tuesday 21 nov 2011 seoul. s. korea