Tasker Tango
I am an Angelees
living in New Hampshire,
choking on nostalgia and a Tanzania Tirade.
Farewell phone calls
and sisterly I Love You’s
linger like the plague.
With the right-to-left of my ’04 tassel,
A Wheaties Autobiography
is finally returned
with four years worth of late charges.
I know that 3,000 miles away
Prince Charming is waiting for me:
waiting while I fold
22 years of memories
in 16 days and then pack them
perfectly in purple luggage.
But ever after is on hold,
paused in freeze frame
while I float through a million goodbyes
in three different states,
dwelling on the fact that there is
never enough tissue to pull away strong.
My future’s suspended
for one last hurrah
with the ones who mean the most,
and hurt the worse to leave…
Aunts who have stepped in
as extra mothers;
Uncles who have supported me
like proud fathers;
Cousins younger and older
who have made me laugh until I’ve cried;
Grammies and Grandpas perpetually present
to chit and chatter while life zips by;
My Father, the King,
my hero and my friend;
And my Mother
who is my truest confidant of all.
But before they let me go
I’ll ask them all to dance:
I want to sweep them off their feet-
promise my steps ahead are paramount,
and pledge my footprints in New England
will never lose their luster.
