“Two Times Baby” by Wanda Coleman:
he’s two nights gone for the second
time. two weeks before that he left
the rehab house and they wouldn’t take
him back. that was two years after he
left the penitentiary and broke two
hearts when he was paroled to my custody
on the condition of marriage. but it
would only take a couple of months before
he started backsliding, picking up the
old habits, old homies, old tracks.
it got to be too much for me and i was
two jumps from killing him when
he split. last time we made love was to
that Doors song of like refrain. now
that he’s gone all I seem to do is
remember how good the two of us got
when we put one-and-one together
(From Bath Water Wine © 1998 by Wanda Coleman. Reprinted by kind permission of Black Sparrow Books and David R. Godine, Inc. Photo by Steve Snodgrass)
The Dish 