Improv 2, Week 9

Last Words
-Angie Estes

Let us cross over
the river and sit in the shade
of the trees. Pardonnez-moi, Monsiuer,
wait 'til I have finished
my problem. It's been a long time
since I've had champagne. Too late
for fruit, too soon for
flowers: hold the cross
high so I may see it through
the flames. Get my swan costume
ready. I am about to--or I am
going to die--die: either expression
is used. Who is it? Ah, Luisa, you
always arrive just as I am
leaving. Sweet Rosabel, I leave you
the truth: if you can read this,
you've come too close. L.
is doing the rhododendrons,
the boat is going down, and I'm going
into the bathroom to read. More
light. Am I dying
or is this my birthday? I should have
drunk more champagne. Either
that wallpaper goes or
I go. What is the answer?
Very well, then, what
is the question? Oh why
does it take so long
to come?
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Let us mingle over the warble
Of wallpaper that hangs in my aunt
Louisa’s dining room and drink the petals
of rhododendrons in our tea.
Funny how you have honored the petals
Like champagne, how you crush
The leaves over the rim of the cup
like a ship on its maiden voyage.
It’s always your lipstick that I remember
You by, biting the white of the cup
Just beyond your fingers . And after
I wash my hands, looking forward to leaving
The lace of the afternoon and I find
A tube of lipstick bathing in the outline
Of Aunt Louisa’s china hutch. I twist
Until you poke up, all curious
Like a baby pig and I run your wax
Over my lips. This is our tea time.
This is you in a spring-time shade,
Champagne. Here in my hands,
very well and pink , costumed
to the very crook of a promise.