Call In The Night Poem by Tom Courtney

Call in the night
when the sun is a peach
wear your white cottons and sit down
next to me on this old porch

Let the rag-tag days of bitter milk creep in
around us in the glistening night
Your smile tells me of infinite variations on a theme
Come, collar your fears
and finger this drink we’ll share
Touch for the moment
what we could have been

Your forehead melts as mine rises
in the dim evening shadows
Fevers of yesterdays
and the comings and goings of ghosts
in the bayous visit
where the light is sixty watts above

Your hair is loosely curled
and your hat band is mellowed
I love you I have to say
even though you move
before I can capture your glance
I love you eternally
not just for this moment

But you know it
and always have from the instant
our eyes met
Eyes know even across burning asphalt
ages barriers and business relations

But rude awakenings
and trenchant strangers leap up
and alter the balance

Another creature another wondering
fodder for my neuroses
when you never come
peeping in and out
in months without beginnings and ending
over and over again

I measure the years long too long
and then much shorter
then jumbled atop one another
while you linger on the fringe of my sensibilities
and throb in my pulse

I love you to a fantasy
when the moon rises
one too many times

And I lie alone
tucked in a pocket of myself
I recreate the world
for walking and running and screaming
as you never come

And when you call you are drunk
and say over and over
that yes yes yes how much
how terribly much
you do love me