what is important

the head of a woman
her strong arms
long and slender
silent summertime charms
and twelve years later
i'm checking for changes
check, please, waiter!
her forehead and hair
falling loosely from an easy chair
gouging my cheeks
delineating lines
old cobblestone signs
and i'm on the road to creation
looking for Mr. Jack
but he's not coming back
with Alan or Paul
and i read them all
earlier in the day
before she modeled for me in an adjacent hay field
monumentality
i was forced to yield
johnny on the spot
like a figure of a man
a passing tiny dot
with flattish breasts in the background
and my treasured book
she took another look
in her androgynous pose
and nobody knows
better than i
how her breath becomes tender
when it wraps itself around my mouth
remembering what is important to remember.