Waiting all morning for your sundress to arrive
Easter bonnet & strawberry milkshake in hand,
I read a prospectus on tulips that promised endless spring
The ceiling seemed heavenly but
Try as I may to surrender
No one ever seduces me just so, sad to say.
Oh well, I’ll drift down on this parachute,
Clinging to another man, time to take in
The ocean & resorts, beaches & umbrellas.
If wishes were dolphins, I had seen a few
In the golden intercoastal waters
Shining & lubricous in the pre-cancerous glare.
But no dolphin ever deemed me lovely enough,
Never turned to flash a fin or leap from the waves.
The parachute deflated & we landed
Ever so lightly before
Parting with a fifty-dollar handshake,
Though I doubled back to help
Fold the silk like bedsheets in our arms
Sweeping it to us, that flight we just had
Laughing and screaming, & praying
To gods whose names we’d fully forgotten.
It was as close to alive as I’d been in a long time.

Nickolas Butler is the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Shotgun Lovesongs, Beneath the Bonfire, The Hearts of Men, Little Faith, and Godspeed.  He lives south of Eau Claire between Cleghorn and Brackett, but votes in the Town of Washington and collects his mail in Fall Creek. His website can be found at nickolasbutler.com.