it's always about a Girl

It’s always about a Girl


in fighting dragons—

            terrible, wonderful creatures of

                         maple leaves and pine needles

with just my broom-handle sword and trash can shield.


or swinging between vines

            above the waiting jagged mouths of

                        crocodile logs and stone tigers;

trying, just trying, to reach Her in time.


swinging up high, so high into the air

            leaving the grounded swing-set-mission-control

                        for outer space, beyond our dreams

only to return to hear Her voice


she is always the same, yet always a new face

            each Helen sends me farther from my life

                        and all I do becomes my quest to win Her

yet there is no Trojan horse to batter down these walls


my sails unfurled, I seek my own particular harbor:

            I search ahead, I gaze at the past, but I glance to my side

                        at the emptiness, the perfect copilot lost to never

leaving me a ghost, aimlessly drifting across our seas.


pale forms rise from the graves beneath my feet

while the dead fog creeps through the midnight soil

I step into the earth for a long year’s nap

drawn on once more by Her siren’s call


It’s always about a Girl

© Tofer Carlson 2011