Her name meant “Permission from God”
But it was hard to know for sure,
As her words were like clouds
Drifting across the sun,
With no beginning or end.
I had just moved in
With my new best friend,
Who I barely knew,
Who had saved my life.
She dropped him
Without a nod at courtesy
The moment she saw me,
Making it seem so
Completely natural
We soon were on the docks at night
Contending over whether I knew her
In circles round the water light
And I chased her
Across the boulevards
As she walked in front of cars --
“They can’t be bothered to hit me” --
In her constant escape
From questions and facts --
“Cheap philosophy” she called it.
But she smiled at me from a distance
As if there was something to catch.
My friend kicked me out,
She went back to Mallorca,
I found a girlfriend.
Next summer the south wind returned
And she called up, breathless,
Wanted to meet me in that spot,
Our spot, as if the love of the world
Depended on it. She didn’t care
I had a girl, it was just a minute
In my day, she said, and it was,
As she stood there in a crimson veil,
Saw my eyes, said “I see”
And walked away.
