through motel curtains

my favorite daydream is a motel room--
our clothes like a second carpet
over the ugly brown wall-to-wall stuff.
you rest your head on my stomach
and we fall asleep
in the alien light
of the television.
-----------------------------
in the afternoons
we watch clouds hang lower
over backyards,
broken tricycles
and rusted basketball hoops.
on the windows the rain
turns everything to blurry suggestions.
-----------------------------
you gave me a shell and said,
"This is a promise that I'll
take you to the beach someday."
I put it in my shoebox
next to seventeen dollars
and my social security card
and tried to be realistic about it.