A Time My World Changed Poem V. 2

We Come to Understand

We come to understand
slowly
The great coming-of-age epiphanies
never really there
But, nevertheless, we come to understand

Steam rising from the lake at dusk
swirling like the smoke from
her cigarette and wicker furniture
lines on the bottom of my thighs.
We came to understand,
understand that she loves a man
long dead so we may never meet

Understand that, though the alcohol
attached itself to blood cells,
sprinted through lungs,
and rode on carbon dioxide out his mouth,
so the whole family could smell his liquor,
he was loved.

He was loved by her,
sitting here, now, alone.
He was loved by her,
our lonely Woman
with a cigarette and a story.

We came to understand,
on those sticky summer evenings
those messy, melting periods
between tired days and lively nights.
Those evenings of conversation
when nothing was taboo
That's when we came to understand

We come to understand
slowly
on slow evenings
when the moon tastes sticky sweet
on wicker furniture and cigarette smoke
with our lonely Woman.