Truancy

If I stepped out while you were

talking but remained on my perch-

If in the midst of making love

the color of a particular kind of jade

called me, urged me(to look away)-

If everyone who walked on their toes

or wore chartreuse while riding a bike

or took down the sanctity like a big tent

distracted me from this moment

that has passed-

If for every classroom where I sat in the rear

and thought about the next thing

and wrote about the desire to play

or just did that

and counted them by fives-

If I missed your dark eyes improvising

because I was watching your mouth bake words

but the words were lost or eaten before I could taste them

because your eyes flagged me down and there

at each still point in this oscillation

I found myself-

If he tried his best to tell me everything

he wanted me to know and then he passed

and I had not gotten what I wanted

but finally stopped looking somewhere else-