Michael Rothenberg

PRINCESS OF THE BROKEN VOW
AT MT. NEBO CEMETERY

Curtains closed on sparkling Miami nightlife

Strange youth overcomes me

Calls me to visit Mt. Nebo Cemetery

Grampa Sam the bookie

Buried beside Grandma Ida

Who made the juiciest hamburgers

Grandpa Harry the loan shark

Buried beside Grandma Ethel

Who died of insulin shock

And Dad, an attorney and real estate developer

In his polished granite loft

The unmarked slot beside him

Reserved for my asthmatic mother

Who always wanted to be a sculptor

And 100 feet west of my blood

A suicide, Lindsay, my first love

O, Princess of Broken Vows

I’m here again

With your inconstant bones

To see what nightmare goes walking

Through geranium, hibiscus and oleander

To revisit silky oils and perfume

Patchouli, French powders

Mascara stains on tear soaked corners of

A goose down comforter

You call me back to the panic of a new moon

Our last Coconut Grove reunion

After a college rendition of Hair

We drove back to my flat

Fell inside each other

Music deepened the senses, deepened confession

You flailed for possessions

Boys were leashed

But you couldn’t sort out Truth

From imported shoes, stuffed toys

Or costume jewelry

When tremors racked your body

Wealth pulled you down

Now plastic flowers adorn your epitaph

Mt. Nebo 3 a.m.

Dad’s reddened ears

A man and his Scotch

Elbows on the wobbling bar of

The Embers

Orating off-color jokes
In a highbrow circus of diamond mirrors

Crystal chandeliers

And Lindsay, you were always there

Just a few deaths away

From my father’s bad heart

Floating beside me

Under mother’s fresh quilts

The gentle pause of your hand

Over my thighs

Clouds danced

A zodiac of rooster, rabbit, bagel and lox

We pulled our bodies closer

Condensations of stilt-rooted islands

Blue jeans pushed hastily to bed’s tight tuck

When a tropical storm came up

Stripped coconuts from the trees

And the trees bowed in supplication

We said it wasn’t really making love

Then with black angry eyes

You taught me about broken vows

With suntanned boys

Who flew south for the winter

From New Jersey or New York

Lies and seduction

That was only the beginning

The heart lives with lies

And dies with compromise

On my knees at Mt. Nebo, 3 a.m.

Where Father drunk and proud can hear me pray

Where my Princess of Broken Vows lies

Between bays, crystal skies, palms and pearls

Where the body belongs to no one to hold too long

                                                                        1997

(c) Michael Rothenberg

Previously published as an unfinished draft on Karl Young's Light and Dust Anthology of Poetry


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