"Where Did You Find That?" by Nellie

Thrilling skill, reserve and hidden wink, 

they call it a “hidden reserve” in the quote, 

“literature” end quote

Where did you find that swagger?

that confidence that sway?

I’ve always been the one to make too much of everything.  

I could be sitting in band or seminar and be filled or fueled 

on another’s beauty.  In my new car, I imbibe landscapes, 

and roads, and varying velocities, and barns, and make 

the acquaintance of trees, and a film strip of postcards.  

I want to make a quilt of sorts out of the things I have seen 

in the summer months, as if you could take out a July road trip 

in February; I thought July looked good on everybody and 

every place, and now, with my goldfish eyes, I wonder about 

the yellowing slants of late September.  Forgetting so easily, 

it takes on a dreaminess, which may be the person I am when 

alone with my thoughts, or the who am when I’ve unzipped 

my limited beliefs and go skinny dipping in the scene, and speed, 

and accelerating into the curve.

It may be a time to flirt with complete abandon, or harvest some 

of the sweetnesses of a lingering moment, or a bon mot I do 

not want to forget, but taste again and against the edginess and 

dagger cold. I am not sure where to put it so that I may find it later.