i am right here, where i have always been, waiting for you

the sky is a sympathetic gray

& the down-turned wine glasses are gathering raindrops
splatterings soak the patio table top adorned with gardenias

it is raining and i am waiting for you like a school girl
who waits for the prom date phone call

i am waiting to hear you read your poem to me
& let the russian sailor in you come out

i am waiting to read to you my newest love poem
the one with the old woman & man in it
& how they held hands as they strolled in central park
i am waiting to read softly into your ear
let the words seep in like the warmth of spanish wine

i am waiting to hear the horn in your heart play as delicately
as the wings of migrating birds

waiting for the flock of them to fill my heart
like raindrops in a red wheelbarrow

i am wondering where you are tonight
what highway you have your thumb stuck out on

i am wondering if you blew all the money your last gig made for you

i am wondering if you know we do not need to have this war of love & longing
if you read A True Account of Talking to The Sun at Fire Island * anymore

if you even remember where long island is anymore

and why you never bother to phone

  * Frank O’Hara poem

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Ph.D., is the first woman to be appointed Suffolk County Poet Laureate (2009-2011). Author of six chapbooks of poetry, she was Long Island Poet of the Year awarded by the Walt Whitman Birthplace. She is founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene, Inc., publisher of The North Sea Poetry Scene Press and editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology. She has been honored with a Long Island Writers Group Community Service Award, and the MOBIOUS Editor-In-Chief’s Choice Award.