Snow began to fall at ten in the evening <br />fine cold adamantine snow. <br />On Atlantic I drove slowly, the streets being slippery, <br />looking for a lady <br />when I spotted Johnnie Mai <br />so pulled up next to her and she hopped into the car <br />and we drove to my apartment <br />where she quickly stripped <br />then made hot chocolate. <br />“This is a nice place, Bernstein, <br />sometimes I stay with Dempsey <br />he’s forty and loves me <br />but not my baby.” <br />“Mary with your mother? ” I asked. <br />Johnnie Mai sipped her hot chocolate slowly <br />in silence <br />eyes closed drifting into that private world <br />where a soul’s history tumbled forever alone <br />when suddenly she said, “Without <br />my mama I’d be dead, <br />also Mary.” Eyes open staring at me <br />then: “I guess we should do it.” <br />“That would be nice.” <br />We walked to the bed <br />the presence of her youthful <br />and powerful body affected me deeply: <br />My turn now to drift <br />as her gracious passion warped warmth <br />into me, so tender, almost true. <br />“Now me cause I’m still a woman <br />even though I take money.” <br />Later she asked, “Can I stay? ” <br />“OK, ” I said. <br />Then in the tinkling of an eye <br />she was asleep and I slid out of bed <br />walked to the window raised the blinds <br />to see in the distance Downstate Medical Center <br />shimmering in the descending crystals <br />where at this very moment most certainly <br />death shaped a soul into a snowflake. <br />I returned to Johnnie Mai her body still afire <br />and pressed close <br />a profound silence in the dark room <br />and I did nothing to disturb it.<br /><br />Charles Chaim Wax<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/happiness-on-a-winter-s-night/
