Postcard from Key West



My Harley spins me through the long, liquid nights,  
crossing one bridge and then another -
Key Largo, Key Biscayne, Key West.
I spend my days among the runaways,
sitting with the tired smell of orchids
and the scent of untidy lives,
trying to re-tie the unknotted ends of mine.
Waitresses with marmalade-colored hair
dulled by Darvon,
slip between the tables, in and out of my life.
I sent a postcard to a friend -
“Greetings from a place stranger than paradise.”
I have settled into a kind of dull friendship
with myself and others.
My life, like the ins and outs of the tides,
is simple
nothing to forgive, no one to understand,
no one to remember.
Hibiscus blooms are everywhere.
I walk with the old, somnambulant dogs
along the path, through dappled light and shade,
down to the dock where we watch
fish flopping in boxes on the docks.
I see myself reflected in cisterns of water,
pools of sunlight.
Adrift in the gravity of my life,
I can no longer connect one moment to the next.
I have nowhere left to go.

About this poem

I have a friend with a Harley who spun his way to Key West. I've tried to capture his experience, but perhaps reveal more about myself than of him.

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Written on June 01, 2022

Submitted by ajohnston1224 on June 01, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
6

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHGIJKLMNOPBHQRSTBUIVW
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,036
Words 212
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 28

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    "Postcard from Key West" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/128476/postcard-from-key-west>.

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