fashionably never

Yes, you can flick your forelock
back, to the side, from the side of your face
where it hangs, like a drawn-out bang
going off in your face, you can flick
your lock back, but

it knows its place.

Yes, you can stand like a mannequin - sleek,
in the clothes that hang off you like modern art,
looking dynamite
and immaculate. Have a Nobel Prize,

you sure look the part.

Yes, you can split down the middle
as neat as the stone-sober whiskey
you knock back in one. Always
poised in motion, with disgraceful
ease, everyone here would thank you

to come. Would you please?

Your absence weighs all the way
through the room.
The proverbial elephant
nobody sees,
and everyone's missed. They are looking
at me. They are looking

for you.