We'll Marry Our Fortunes Together by Jim Zola

It starts with a darkness

you mistake for light.

You search each room

expecting to find more.

Empty glasses, dirty socks,

dog-eared books with broken spines.

I follow you, little shadow,

wanting to kiss

the soles of your feet. 

Tomorrow we will remember

our names. My Abelard

pressed against your Heloise.

Yesterday you traced the river

with a finger, sent it to me.

What am I to do with so much

water. I drink seven cups a day

and search for a bridge

to take you under.

You say wine. I drink

and shout out the window –

come home sweet nothing. 

You search and in each room

find my wife. She smiles

barefoot, marks her spot

in the book. The story of us.

The room fills with water. 

Drink. Open the window.

I swim to you.

Jim Zola has worked in a warehouse, as a security guard, in a bookstore, as a teacher for Deaf children, as a toy designer for Fisher Price, and currently as a children's librarian. Published in many journals through the years, his publications include a chapbook -- The One Hundred Bones of Weather (Blue Pitcher Press) -- and a full length poetry collection -- What Glorious Possibilities (Aldrich Press). He currently lives in Greensboro, NC.